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DWIGHT 
MOODY 



ILLUSTRATED 



t i 



His Life 
His Work 
His Words 



CONTAINING A COMPLETE STORY OF HIS 
REMARKABLE CAREER, SKETCHES OF HIS 
CO-WORKERS AND OF THE INSTITUTIONS 
WHICH HE ESTABLISHED. HIS SERMONS, 
HIS ANECDOTES, HIS BEST THOUGHTS, ETC. 



By... 

EDWARD LEIGH PELL, D. D. 

Author of Several Books on Bible 
Study, Notes on the Sunday- 
School Lessons, etc 



RICHMOND, VA.: 

B. F. Johnson Publishing Co. 

1900. 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 

library of Con&rof* 
Office of tho 

Register of Copyrights 

3^ 5 



>+ 



54411 



Copyright 1900, 

BY 

B. F. Johnson Publishing Company. 



SfiCOMD COPY, 




PPEPACE. 

|N this volume I have tried to tell the 
story of the most influential life of our 
time. It is a story of a life, not a study of 
the influence which that life has exerted. No man, 
I am persuaded, has left a more profound impres- 
sion upon his age than Dwight L. Moody ; but any 
attempt at this early da}^ to get at the depth or 
breadth of his influence, or to form an adequate 
conception of its character, must in the nature of 
things result in failure. A small man may be 
measured in a day ; a great man may not be meas- 
ured in a generation. We cannot attempt to get a 
full length portrait of a man whose life is bound 
up with the life of his epoch, as Moody's was, until 
sufficient time has elapsed to get a full length 
view of the epoch itself. 

As for Moody, I doubt if he will ever be fully 
understood. He did not understand himself. 
Often he was at a loss to account for his feelings. 
There were times when, as he said, he seemed to 

(3) 



4 Preface. 

have no power over himself, and it was as if God 
was taking him to pieces and making him over 
again. His success was as much a mystery to 
himself as it has been to others. He knew that 
he tried to do such and such things, but he felt 
that the effort was wholly inadequate to produce 
such wonderful results. And we, too, are begin- 
ning to feel that after all has been said of his mar- 
velous commonsense, his sincerity, his tremendous 
earnestness, his love for humanity, his consuming 
zeal for souls, we will know nothing more of the 
real secret of his power than we did at the begin- 
ning. Indeed we are beginning to doubt whether 
there was a secret. Neither his commonsense, nor 
his earnestness, nor his love, nor his zeal, nor all 
combined will account for his life. There is no 
explanation except that he was one upon whom the 
Lord had laid his hand, and that does not explain 
anything to a world that is slow of heart to believe 
that God ever thus places his hand upon any man. 
In the preparation of this volume, I have received 
generous help from two sources which I wish to 
acknowledge- For the arrangement of the ser- 
mons I am indebted to the Rev. W. H. Daniels, 
A. M. Mr. Daniels made a thorough study of 



Preface. 5 

Moody's discourses with a view to arranging them 
in such order that they would show just what the 
Evangelist believed and taught. The result, as 
will be readily seen, is an orderly, comprehensive 
and helpful presentation of the doctrines of the 
Bible. In carrying out his unique design, Mr. 
Daniels found it necessary to abbreviate some of 
the discourses, but the reader will find that the 
best sermons have been presented entire, while the 
few that have been abridged have not seriously 
suffered thereby. 

I also desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to 
the publishers, who, of their own motion, gener- 
ously placed at my disposal the clerical resources 
of their large establishment, and in other ways 
sought to lessen the heavy burdens which are 
imposed by a work of this character. 



CONTENTS. 



THE LIFE OF DWIGHT L. MOODY. 

PAGE 

I. Beginnings 17 

Moody's Mother— The Moodys and Holtons— Early Impres- 
sions—School Days. 

II. Ups and Downs of Youth 35 

Looking for Work in Boston— Salesman in a Shoe Store— Con- 
version— Examined for Church Membership and Refused— Re- 
garded as Unpromising — Trying to be Useful— Discouragements. 

III. Getting a Start in Chicago 46 

A Successful Salesman— First Efforts at Mission Work— Starts 
a Sunday School— Experiences in the Slums. 

IV. Separated Unto the Work 59 

How Moody was Led to Devote Himself Wholly to the Lord's 
Work. 

V. The War and After 72 

Thrilling Experiences on the Battlefield and in Camp — Mar- 
riage—Organizes a Church— First Public Appearance in New 
England. 

VI. A Man of One Book 89 

Moody Meets Harry Moorehouse— Rapid Progress in Bible 
Study— Develops Remarkable Skill in Bible Teaching— Notes 
from His Bible. 

VII. How Moody Found Sankey . 106 

The Story of Sankey's Life— How " The Ninety and Nine " 
was Written. 

VIII. Thrust Forth 119 

Moody's First Visit to London— Passes Through a Remark- 
able Religious Experience. 

(7) 



8 Contents. 

PAGE- 

IX. Moody and Sankky Stir Great Britain 130 

In Liverpool Without Friends— A Cold Reception— The Turn- 
ing of the Tide — All Scotland Moved — Henry Drummond — An 
Irish Welcome. 

X. The Awakening of London 143 

The Plan of the Campaign — Critical Newspapers — The Great 
City Stirred— The Nobility Near Him. 

XI. Revivals in American Cities 154 

In the Brooklyn Rink— Philadelphia — The Great Hippodrome 
Meeting in New York— Chicago — Boston — New England. 

XII. Moody as a Preacher 173 

Was He an Orator? — Marvelous Power Over an Audience — 
What He Taught— How He Prepared His Sermons. 

XIII. Methods of Work 188 

How He Managed His Meetings— Believed in Advertising — 
Making People Feel at Home — Personal Work — As a Music 
Director. 

XIV. Moody as an Educator 203 

Small Beginnings— The Northfield Seminary for Girls — Mt. 
Hermon School for Boys — The Northfield Summer Conferences 
—The Chicago Bible Institute— Dr. R. A. Torrey. 

XV. The World's Fair Campaign • 222 

A Gigantic Enterprise— Moody's Magnificent Generalship — 
A Great Meeting in Forepaugh's Circus— Remarkable Answer 
to Prayer. 

XVI. Abundant in Labors 234 

A Great Builder -Prison Work— Visit to New York— City 
Prison — The Bible Colportage Institute — Conversion of a Noted 
Thief. 

XVII. Moody at Home 246 

His Everyday Life in Northfield. 

XVIII. The Man Himself 256 

At First Glance -A Great Soul Beneath a Rugged Exterior— 
His Humility- Mr. Thoughtful Soul— His Love for Little Chil- 
dren. 



Contents. g 

PAGE 

XIX. The Triumphant End 263 

His Last Efforts— Sickness— Glimpses Beyond the Veil— Last 
Words — Funeral — Eulogies. 

XX. As WE Think of Him 273 

XXI. Moody's Co-Workers 283 

XXII. Moody's Prayers 296 

HIS SERMONS. 

I. Sermons on Great Doctrines. 

1. God is Love ........ 303 

2. The Power of God 314 

3. Jesus Christ : His Character and Offices 318 

Prophecies Concerning Christ — Announcement of Christ's 
Birth— The Divinity of Christ— What Think Ye of Christ ?— Jesus, 
the Messiah— Temptations of Christ— Miracles of Christ — 
Christ, the Refuge — Christ, the Redeemer— The Resurrection of 
Christ— Jesus, the Anointed— Christ, the Saviour— Christ, the 
Keeper— Christ-like— Christ, the Good Shepherd— Seeking the 
Lost Sheep— Christ, the Restorer— Plenty and Safety with Christ 
—Feeding the Multitude— The Water of Life— Light of the World 
—The Resurrection and the Life. 

4. The Holy Spirit 406 

The Person of the Holy Ghost— The Work of the Spirit— Con- 
viction— Our Leader- A Witness for Christ— Indwelling of the 
Holy Spirit— Regeneration— The Inspiration of Prophecy and 
Prayer— The Sword of the Spirit— The Baptism of the Holy 
Spirit for Service -Emblems of the Spirit— Grieving the Spirit — 
Sin Against the Holy Ghost. 

5. Sin and Salvation 451 

Man a Failure— " Tekel " — Law and Grace— Free Salvation- 
Righteousness First— Sermons to Fallen Women— How to be 
Saved. 

6. Last Things 489 

Heaven— Hell— The Return of Our Lord. 

II. Sermons to Christian Workers. 

1. Getting Ready for Revivals 520 

2. Work 522 

3. To Every Man His Work 529 



io Contents. 

PAGE 

4. Hindrances 534 

5. Enthusiasm 542 

6. Faith 548 

7- Trust 554 

8. Love 558 

9. How to Study the Bible . . . . 565 

III. Bible Portraits. 

1. The Prodigal Son 578 

2. The Prophet Daniel 589 

3. Major-General Naaman 601 

4. Elijah 606 

5. Saul of Tarsus 612 

HIS ANECDOTES 621 

HIS SAYINGS 678 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Dwight L. Moody . Frontispiece. 

Moody's Mother 19 

Moody's Birthplace 25 

The Old Moody Homestead * . . . . 29 

Leaving Home 37 

Leading a Procession of Street Urchins 47 

Moody's Home at East Northfield 61 

Moody Ready for Work 73 

Moody's Bible 91 

Ira D. Sankey at Thirty-eight 107 

Dwight L. Moody at Thirty-six 121 

Bird's-eye View of the Northfield Schools 131 

Moody Meeting Gladstone 145 

D. L. Moody 155 

View of Mt. Hermon Schools . . 163 

Wanamaker-Gordon Lake 175 

Mt. Hermon School for Boys 181 

The Auditorium 189 

Dickinson Library 205 

Dickinson Library (interior) 211 

Moody in the Pulpit— a Characteristic Attitude 219 

North Church 223 

Betsy Moody Cottage 229 

Stone Hall 235 

Hillside Cottage 235 

East Hall , 241 

(II) 



12 Illustrations. 

PAGE 

Weston Hall, Northfield Seminary 241 

Moody Out for a Drive 251 

Views from Round-Top, Where Moody was Buried 265 

Talcott Library 275 

Northfield Chapel 275 

Revell.Hall 285 

Holton Hall 285 

Mt. Hermon Dormitory 285 

Marquand Hall, Northfield 289 

Henry Drummond 318 

A. C. Dixon 332 

P. P. Bliss 346 

Monument to P. P. Bliss 360 

Boston Tabernacle 374 

Northside Tabernacle, Chicago 388 

Interior of Chicago Tabernacle 402 

New Haven Tabernacle 416 

The New York Hippodrome 430 

Mr. Moody Preaching in the Opera House, Haymarket, London . 444 

Camberwell Hall, London, Southside 458 

Free Church Assembly Hall, Edinburgh 472 



THE LIFE OF DWIGHT L. MOODY. 



If sometime you should read that D, L, Moody of East North- 
field, Mass,, is dead don f tyou helie<ve a %>ord of it. He has gone 
up higher, that is all; gone out of this old clay tenement into a 
house that is immortal: a body that death cannot touch, that sin 
cannot taint, a body fashioned like unto His glorious body, 

— DWIGHT L. MOODY, 



Dwight L Moody. 




BEGINNINGS. 

DWIN MOODY, stonemason, farmer and 
respected citizen, was an honest, hard-work- 
ing man, who bore with patience the heat 
and burden of the, day, and before evening 
lay down and died a bankrupt — having failed of the re- 
wards of thrift by reason of an unfortunate speculation. 
When Edwin Moody's widow dried her tears and 
began to look about for her bearings, the only assets in 
sight were seven hungry mouths and a home crushed be- 
neath an immovable mortgage. A month later she gave, 
birth to twins, while insatiable creditors were carrying 
away the very kindling wood. Her burdens were too 
heavy for her neighbors to contemplate with comfort, 
and they lost no time in advising her to bind out her 
older children to anybody who would take them. But 
Betsey Holton Moody was a woman of another spirit. 
"Not while I have these two hands," she said quietly, 
and she went on to lay her plans accordingly. 

She came of an old Puritan family that had settled 
in America as far back as 1634. Of the Moody family 

2 (17) 



18 Dwight L. Moody. 

little is known. Edwin Moody's father, Isaiah, came to 
Northfield, Massachusetts, from Hadley, in 1796, riding 
a horse, which, with a "kit of stonemason's tools in his 
bag," constituted his sole possessions. He seems to have 
been a man of unusual industry and grew to comfort- 
able circumstances. 

William Houlton, the first of the Holton family in 
America, had in no small degree all those sturdy virtues 
which belonged, or are supposed to belong, to the Puri- 
tans of that period. He was an original proprietor of 
Hartford, and later of Northampton, which he repre- 
sented in the General Court for five years. He made the 
first motion in a town meeting to prohibit the sale of in- 
toxicating drinks, and was "the first commissioner to 
the General Court in Boston in that temperance effort." 
His descendants inherited much of his sturdy spirit, 
while to Betsey, the daughter of Luther Holton (sixth 
from William), there seems to have fallen a double 
portion. It would be hard to find a nobler type of char- 
acter in all the genealogy of the Puritans than this 
woman, who, sick in body and heart, faced the world 
with nine children, bereft of her husband, mercilessly 
set upon by her creditors, and eyed askance by her neigh- 
bors, whose advice she had spurned. 

The best that even such a woman in her circumstances 
could do was poor. In that day Northfield was but a 
struggling hamlet, and opportunities to turn an honest 
penny were few. It was mainly the penny saved that 
was the penny made, and with nine mouths to provide 
for there were no pennies to save. What with the bur- 
dens on her shoulders and the burdens on her heart, it is 
no wonder that the days through which she faced the 
world so bravely were wedged in between endless nights 




MOODY'S MOTHER. 



Beginnings. 21 

of weeping. For a year after her husband's death she 
cried herself to sleep every night. 

When Edwin Moody died, Dwight Lyman, the sixth 
son, was four years old, having been born February 5, 
1837, his mother's birthday and the year of Victoria's 
coronation. The oldest son, Edwin J., was thirteen 
years old, and the oldest daughter, Cornelia (there were 
in all seven sons and . two daughters ) , was only nine. 
Of the struggles of those early days Moody has left us 
a sorrowful picture. "Before I was four years old," he 
says, in one of his sermons, "the first thing I remember 
was the death of my father. He had been unfortunate in 
business and failed. Soon after his death the creditors 
came and took everything; my mother was left with a 
large family of children. One calamity after another 
swept off the entire household. Twins were added to 
the family and my mother was taken sick. The eldest 
boy, to whom my mother looked up to comfort her in 
her loneliness and in her great affliction, became a wan- 
derer; he left home. I need not tell how that mother 
mourned for her boy ; how she waited day by day, month 
by month, for his return. I need not say how night after 
night she watched and wept and prayed. Many a day 
we were told to go to the postoffice and see if a letter 
had not come from him, but we had to bring back the 
sorrowful words, 'No letter yet, mother.' Many a time 
have I waked up and heard my mother praying, 'O God, 
bring back my boy.' Many a time did she lift her heart 
up in prayer for her boy. When the wintry gales would 
blow around the house and the storm rage without the 
door, her dear face would wear a terribly anxious look, 
and she would utter in piteous tones, 'Oh, my clear boy, 
perhaps he is now on the ocean this fearful night. O 
God, preserve him.' 



21 Dwight L. Moody. 

"We would sit around the fireside of an evening and 
ask her to tell us about our father, and she would talk 
for hours about him; but if the mention of my eldest 
brother should chance to come in, then all would be 
hushed ; she never spoke of him but with tears. Many 
a time did she try to conceal them, but all would be in 
vain ; and, when Thanksgiving Day would come, a chair 
used to be set for him. Our friends and neighbors gave 
him up, but our mother had faith that she would see 
him again. One day, in the middle of summer, a 
stranger was seen approaching the house. He came up 
on the eastern piazza and looked upon my mother 
through the window. The man had a long beard, and 
when my mother first saw him she did not start or rise. 
But when she saw the great tears trickling down his 
cheeks, she cried, 'It's my boy, my dear, dear boy,' and 
sprang to the window. But there the boy stood and said, 
'Mother, I will never cross the threshold until you say 
you forgive me.' Do you think he had to stay there 
long? No, no; her arms were soon around him and she 
wept upon his shoulder, as did the father of the prodigal 
son. I heard of it while in a distant city, and what a 
thrill of joy shot through me !" 

"But," added Moody, "what joy on earth can equal 
the joy in heaven when a prodigal comes home?" 

As a little child Dwight was a bundle of health, sun- 
shine and mischief. He did not know what it was to 
be still, and he was as tremendously busy in having a 
good time as he ever was afterwards in winning souls. 
His school days were few and of uncertain value. He 
started early enough — he was at school when the news 
came of his father's sudden death — but he did not get 
farther than the three R's and a small bit of algebra. 



Beginnings. 23 

It would be a mistake, however, to say that he grew up 
with an empty mind. From his earliest boyhood he 
was a keen and thoughtful observer of the world around 
him, though it was a very small world, his home being 
a mile and a half from the village and the village being 
many miles from everywhere. "The tender lessons of 
his mother," said Mr. Nason,* "were not lost on him. 
The sorrows of his family sunk through the effer- 
vescence of his spirit deep into his heart. The tolling 
of the death bell, the roar of the mountain wind, the 
falling of the snowflakes, the germination of the seed 
in the springtime, the flight of the birds, the rustle of 
the leaves in the autumn, the current of the noble river, 
the flowing tide of busy life, bright in hope or dark in 
sorrow, made indelible impressions on his mind. He 
received such teachings and pondered over them until 
they became a part of his own being. He was a learner 
in the higher sense — taking his instruction fresh and 
free, instead of second-hand through books, from life 
and nature." Mr. Nason adds that his after allusions 
to scenes and incidents of his early days, and fine illus- 
trations drawn from memories of childhood, "clearly 
show that he was then a learner — I had almost said the 
learner of that period — and that something higher and 
nobler than what the schools alone can teach is needed 
for the attainment of commanding power over the minds 
of men. This he acquired in part while nurtured in the 
pinching penury of his mountain home." 

Between school terms Dwight led the neighbors' cows 
to pasture on the mountains near by, and later worked 
on the adjoining farms. His first wages were a cent a 

*" Lives and Labors of Eminent Divines," by Rev. E)lias Nason and Frank 
Beale, Jr. Philadelphia : John K. Potter & Co. 



24 Dwight L. Moody. 

day, but he managed to get a vast amount of fun along 
with his coin. His constant overflow of animal spirits 
sorely tried the patience of his mother in those days, 
and sometimes gave her serious trouble ; but, as has been 
said, "his affection for his mother was the golden chain 
that saved him." He was thoughtless, but he could not 
be indifferent, and he was always deeply grieved when 
he became conscious that his mischief-making had 
caused her pain. And it is certain that he obeyed no one 
else half so well. Mrs. Moody had found a faithful 
friend in her pastor, the Rev. Oliver Everett, who began 
to take a lively interest in the welfare of the family. At 
one time Mr. Everett invited Dwight to come and live 
with him, as boy of all work about the house; but the 
good man's patience was soon worn threadbare by the 
boy's pranks, and after a few months' trial, he was glad 
to return him to his mother. 

It was Mrs. Moody's custom to read to her little ones, 
and to instill into their little minds the simple precepts of 
the Gospel as she knew them. Often as they sat at the 
table she would give them verses of Scripture, which they 
were required to repeat until they had committed them to 
memory. She used to say that when the children be- 
came quarrelsome she would go off to her own room and 
pray, and on returning she would find that they were all 
"going to be good children again." These early teach- 
ings seem to have had. little effect upon Dwight at the 
time. He was an independent little fellow, who was 
always, as his mother said, thinking himself a man, and 
few who undertook to instruct him succeeded in winning 
his regard. The only school teacher who found the way 
to his heart was a lady who announced, when she took 
charge of the school, that she proposed to rule her 



Beginnings. 2,j 

scholars by love. When Dwight began to break the rules, 
which he promptly proceeded to do, she called him to her 
side, and began to talk kindly to him. "If you love me/' 
she said, "try to keep the rules of the school." It was 
worse than a whipping, and it conquered Dwight, who 
became her most valiant champion. 

If he did not always take kindly to the efforts which 
were made to instill into his mind the precepts of re- 
ligion, he was by no means proof against religious im- 
pressions. Once when he was some distance from home, 
an old fence which he was trying to climb fell upon him 
and held him captive. He tried to lift the heavy rails, 
but they would not move. Then he cried for help, but 
nobody came. Presently the thought came to him that 
he would die out on the mountain all alone unless help 
came to him from above, and he began to pray. "After 
that," he tells us, "I found that I could lift the rails." 

At another time he went with one of his brothers to a 
town several miles away. While they were walking 
down the street they saw an old man coming toward 
them, and his brother said, "There is a man who will give 
you a cent. He gives every new boy who comes into this 
town a cent." It was his first visit to the place, and 
when the old man came up, Dwight's brother reminded 
him that there was a new boy in town. Looking at 
Dwight a moment, he placed his hand on his head, and 
told him he had a Father in heaven. "It was a kind, 
simple act," said Moody many years after, "but I feel 
the pressure of the old gentleman's hand on my head 
to-day." 

"I well remember," he said, recalling the impressions 
made upon his mind in those days, "how I used to look 
upon death as a terrible monster; how he used to throw 



28 Dwight L. Moody. 

his dark shadow across my path ; how I trembled as I 
thought of the terrible hour when he should come for 
me; how I thought I should like to die of some linger- 
ing disease, such as consumption, so that I might know 
when he was coming. It was the custom in our village 
to toll from the old church bell the age of every one who 
died. Death never entered that village and tore away 
one of the inhabitants but I counted the tolling of the 
bell. Sometimes it was seventy, sometimes eighty, some- 
times it would be away down among the teens, some- 
times it would toll out the death of some one of my 
own age. It made a solemn impression upon me; I felt 
a coward. I thought of the cold hand of death feeling 
for the cords of life. I thought of being launched forth 
to spend my eternity in an unknown land. 

"As I looked into the grave and saw the sexton throw 
the earth on the coffin-lid, 'Earth to earth; ashes to 
ashes; dust to dust,' it seemed like the death knell of my 
own soul. But that is all changed now. The grave has 
lost its terror. As I go on toward heaven I can shout 
out, 'Death, where is thy sting?' and I hear the answer 
rolling down from Calvary, 'Buried, buried in the bosom 
of the Son of God !' " 

In another sermon he has left us an account of an 
incident which bore very heavily on his young heart. It 
was while he was at work on a neighboring farm. "I 
was talking one day to a man who was working there, 
and who was weeping. I said to him, 'What is the 
trouble?' and he told me a very strange story. 

"When he started in life, he left his native village, and 
went to another town to find something to do, and was 
unsuccessful. The first Sabbath he went to a little 
church; and the minister preached from the text, 'Seek 



Beginnings. 3 1 

ye first the kingdom of God;' and he thought the text 
and the sermon were for him. He wanted to get rich; 
and when he was settled in life, he would seek the 
kingdom of God. He went on, and the next Sabbath 
he was in another village. It was not long before he 
heard another minister preach from the same text, 'Seek 
ye first the kingdom of God.' He thought surely some 
one must have been speaking to the minister about him, 
for the minister just pictured him out. But he said, when 
he got settled in life, and had control of his time, and 
was his own master, he would then seek the kingdom of 
God. 

"Some time after, he was at another village, and here 
went to church again ; and he had not been going a great 
while when he heard the third minister preach from the 
same text : 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His 
righteousness, and all things else shall be added/ He 
said it went right down into his soul ; but he calmly and 
deliberately made up his mind that he wovHJ not become 
a Christian until he had got settled in life, and owned 
his farm. This man said, 'Now I am what the world 
calls rich. I go to church every Sunday; but I have 
never heard a sermon from that day to this which has ever 
made any impression on my heart. My heart is as hard 
as a stone/ As he said that, tears trickled down his 
cheeks. I was a young man and did not know what it 
meant. When I was converted I thought, when I should 
go back home, I would see this man, and preach Christ 
to him. When I went back home, I said to my widowed 
mother, naming the man, 'Is he still living in the same 
place?' My mother said, 'He is gone mad, and has been 
taken away to the insane asylum ; and to every one that 
goes to see him he points his finger, and says, "Seek ye 



32 Dwight L. Moody. 

first the kingdom of God." I thought I should like to 
see him; but he was so far gone it would do no good. 
The next time I went home he was at his home, idiotic. 
I went to see him. When I went in I said, 'Do you know 
me?' He pointed his finger at me, and said, 'Young 
man, seek ye first the kingdom of God.' God had driven 
the text into his mind, but his reason was gone. Three 
years ago when I visited my father's grave, I noticed 
a new stone had been put up. I stopped, and found it 
was my friend's. The autumn wind seemed whispering 
that text, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God.' " 

But it was from his mother's beautiful life that Moody 
received his most lasting impressions, as he afterwards 
fully realized. There is nothing that more vividly illus- 
trates the tender side of Moody's character than the 
esteem and affection which he always showed for his 
mother. As he grew up, he became helpful to her, and 
as soon as he was able he settled her in a comfortable 
home, whe 1 ^ she remained the abject of his tenderest 
solicitude through a long and beautiful life. "I have an 
old mother," he would often say, "away down in the 
Connecticut Mountains, and I have been in the habit of 
going to see her every year. Suppose I go there and 
say, 'Mother, you were very kind to me when I was 
young — you were very good to me when father died — 
you worked hard for us all to keep us together, and so I 
have come to see you because it is my duty.' Then she 
would say to me, 'Well, my son, you only come to see 
me because it is your duty ; you need not come again.' ' 
"That," he would add, "is the way with a great many 
servants of God. They work for Him because it is their 
duty; not for love." 

Mrs. Moody was a devoted Unitarian. The circum- 



Beginnings. 33 

Stances of her conversion to the evangelical faith have 
been told by Mr. Kimball, Moody's first Sunday School 
teacher. For a long while, Mr. Kimball says, Moody's 
mother did not sanction her son's choice of the evan- 
gelist's calling, and she did not hear him preach until 
years after he had attained world-wide fame. In 1875, 
after Moody's return from England, he had an appoint- 
ment to preach at North-field. The family still lived 
on the old farm, and was accustomed to drive to town 
in the old farm wagon, as they had done in the old days. 
Most of the members of the family were going to drive 
to church that morning to hear Dwight preach. When 
they were nearly ready to go, Mrs. Moody startled her 
daughter by saying, "I don't suppose there would be 
room in the wagon for me this morning, would there?" 
No one had ever thought of the mother unbending and 
going to hear her son. "Of course, there will be room, 
mother," said the daughter, and the mother was taken 
down to church with the rest. Moody preached from 
the fifty-first Psalm, with a fervor that was apparently 
inspired largely by the presence of his mother. When 
those who desired prayer were asked to rise, the mother 
stood up. The son was completely overcome, and turn- 
ing to Mr. B. F. Jacobs, said with emotion, "You pray, 
Jacobs, I can't." 

Mrs. Moody died in 1896, at the great age of ninety- 
one years. At the close of the funeral sermon, Moody 
stepped from his pew, and standing by the coffin, said : 

"If I can control my feelings, I want to say a few 
words in token of the great love in which we hold the 
memory of this good woman. I consider it a great honor 
to be a son of such a woman. She was wiser than Solo- 
mon, and her judgment and tact were strong traits in 
3 



34 Dwight L. Moody. 

her character. She made our home, poor though it was, 
the best place on earth to us. Left a widow with nine 
small children, she set herself to the task of bringing 
up her family, and, with her strong faith in God, suc- 
ceeded even better than she hoped. She taught us that 
poverty was no disgrace. During the first years of her 
widowhood she wept herself to sleep night after night, 
and we never knew of it until later years. Her love for 
her children was such that there was no favorite." 

He told of those trying days after the father died, 
leaving the family in poverty ; how the creditors came 
and took everything, even to the wood from the shed; 
how the children had to stay in bed in the morning until 
it was school time, because there was no wood for a fire ; 
and how a load of wood was sent to them before night 
and the family was kept together; how he contributed 
to the support of the family by earning a penny a day, 
tending cattle on the hillside. He told how his mother 
punished him, he being more mischievous than the rest; 
how she sent him for a stick, and he w T ould spend a great 
deal of time hunting for a stick that would break easily, 
and how his mother kept calm, and sent him for a strong 
birch switch, and applied it with vigor for his lasting 
good. He also told of the observance of the Sabbath; 
how they kept that day from sundown Saturday until 
sunset Sunday, and of the children's glee when the day 
was over. "There was never any question," said he, 
"whether we should attend church. It was a certainty, 
and we went barefooted, with our shoes in our hands." 

Then he read from the old Bible, and from a book of 
verses given his mother by her old pastor, after which 
he addressed his mother in most touching language, 
while the sobs of the weeping congregation nearly 
drowned his voice. 







II. 

UPS AND DOWNS OF YOUTH. 

NCLE," said Dwight to his mother's brother 
Samuel, who had come over from Boston 
to spend Thanksgiving Day with the family, 
I want to come to Boston and have a place 
in your shoe store ; will you take me ?" Mr. Holton had 
not formed a very favorable opinion of the boy, and made 
no answer. That afternoon he was told by a member of 
the family that if he took Dwight the boy would soon 
want to run the store. 

That winter Dwight had an altercation with his 
teacher, and would have been expelled but for the inter- 
cession of his mother. During the remainder of the 
term he applied himself with great diligence, but it was 
his last year at school, and the time was too short to 
make much progress. 

When the session ended he got together his best 
clothes, kissed his mother good-bye, received her bless- 
ing, and started out for Boston to make his fortune. He 
was now seventeen years old, and is described as a 
strong, robust lad, shabby in appearance and unpolished 
in manners. In a photograph taken at this period, he 
appears in an overcoat buttoned up to his chin, "with 
a beardless face expressive of the satisfaction which his 
good looks and his handsome dress afforded." 

When he turned up at his Uncle Samuel's store in 
Boston that good man was quite unprepared to meet the 
situation. He could only inquire after the family and 
ask how Dwight proposed to get a start. The high- 

(35) 



36 Dwight L. Moody. 

spirited boy, who expected his uncle to take him in the 
store, replied coldly that he thought he could find work, 
and went his way. He spent several days looking for 
a position, but nobody seemed to want the plain, blunt 
youth, who showed himself so ill at ease among the well- 
dressed people of the great city. Meanwhile his funds 
were running low. 

Of these trials he has left us a vivid picture. "I re- 
member when I was a boy" — he was 'illustrating a point 
— "when I went to Boston I went to the postoffice two 
or three times a day to see if there was a letter for me. 
I knew there was not, as there was but one mail a day. 
I had not had employment, and was very homesick, and 
so went constantly to the postoffice, thinking perhaps, 
when the mail did come in my letter had been mislaid. 
At last, however, I got a letter. It was from my youngest 
sister, the first letter she ever wrote to me. I opened it with 
a light heart, thinking there was some good news from 
home, but the burden of the whole letter was that she 
had heard there were pickpockets in Boston, and warned 
me to take care of them. I thought I had better get some 
money in hand first, and then I might take care of pick- 
pockets." 

Finally, growing discouraged, he went to another 
uncle who lived in the city and told him he was going 
to New York. "Why don't you go to your Uncle Samuel 
for a situation?" that gentleman asked. "Because," re- 
plied Dwight, "I think he ought to make the offer him- 
self." But his pride soon abated and he went. 

"I am afraid," said Mr. Holton, looking him over, "if 
you come in here you will want to run the store your- 
self. However," he added, "if you want to come and 
do the best you can, and do it right, and if you will ask 



' .<*"« • 5 



...; 







LEAVING HOME. 



Ups and Downs of Youth. 39 

me when you don't know how to do anything, or if I am 
not here ask the book-keeper, and if he's not here ask 
one of the salesmen, or one of the boys, and if you are 
willing to go to church and Sunday School when you 
are able to go anywhere on Sunday, and if you are will- 
ing not to go anywhere at night or any other time that 
you wouldn't want me or your mother to know about, 
why, then, if you will promise all these things, you may 
come and take hold arid see how you can get along." 

Dwight promised, and he was at once installed as a 
boy of all work in his Uncle Samuel's shoe store. He 
soon managed to make himself so useful that he was 
made a salesman, and it is said that Mr. Holton had no 
reason to complain of any failure to fulfill the conditions 
under which he was received. "He was a sharp observer 
of human nature," says Mr. Daniels, "quick to take ad- 
vantage of everything in his way ; always alert and ready 
in any emergency. His pride would not admit of his 
asking too many questions, and, as the business was new 
to him, he was often in doubt about prices and qualities, 
but what he lacked in knowledge he would make up in 
shrewd guessing. His idea of business was a struggle 
with mankind, out of which the hardest heads and the 
sharpest wits were sure to come with the largest influence 
and the longest purse. The quiet manners of his uncle 
he could never learn, nor did he desire to learn them. 
He went about his duties in the store very much the 
same way as he would have swung a scythe in a field of 
tangled clover or broken a yoke of wild steers. If any 
one offended his sense of honor he would fly into a fury 
at once; but the tempest of passion soon passed by." 

In accordance with the terms of the agreement in- 
sisted upon by his uncle, Dwight became a regular 



40 Dwight L. Moody. 

attendant upon the Sunday School and services of Mt. 
Vernon Congregational Church, of which Dr. E. N. 
Kirk, a man of great eloquence, zeal and fervor, was 
pastor. It was not, it seems, a matter of choice. "When 
I first went to Boston," he said years afterwards, "my 
employer made me go to church. I used to go and sit in 
the gallery and very often fall asleep. One day while 
I was having a nap under the sermon I felt somebody 
poking me in the ribs, and when I looked up there was 
one of the deacons who had come to wake me, and was 
pointing with his finger at the minister, as much as to 
say: 'Attend to the preaching.' I felt as if everybody 
was looking at me, but I didn't know what else to do 
unless I gave attention to the sermon. Soon I began to 
listen to Dr. Kirk, and for the first time in my life felt 
as if he was preaching altogether at me." Dwight could 
make little out of his pastor's preaching, but it is be- 
lieved by many that it was from Dr. Kirk that he 
imbibed much of the spirit which characterized his subse- 
quent life. Speaking of what Moody owed to his pastor, 
Rev. Carlos T. Chester says — I quote from his article 
in the Sunday School Times — "If we were to take 
those lectures on revivals which the editor, the Rev. D. 
O. Mears, said embodied the observation and experience 
of Dr. Kirk's busy life, and at the same time revealed 
the principles upon which his success was built up, — 
hundreds of passages, as to method and spirit, could be 
quoted, which afterward found highest expression and 
realization in Mr. Moody's work. But, years before the 
lectures were delivered, he had heard the same inspiring 
thoughts put forth by his pastor with fire and feeling, 
in the old Mt. Vernon Church of his first love." 

It was to his Sunday School teacher, however, Mr. 



Ups and Downs of Youth. 4! 

Edward Kimball, that young Moody was indebted for 
the word that ultimately led him to Christ. In his story 
of Moody's conversion, Mr. Kimball says that when the 
superintendent brought Dwight to his class he handed 
him a closed Bible and told him the lesson was in John. 
The boy took the book and began running over the leaves, 
beginning at the first of the volume. "Out of the 
corners of their eyes the other boys saw what he was 
doing, and, detecting his ignorance, glanced slyly and 
knowingly at one another, not rudely, of course, you un- 
derstand." Mr. Kimball gave the boys a hasty glance 
of reproof and their equanimity was immediately re- 
stored. He then quietly handed Moody his own book 
open at the right place. "I didn't suppose," he says, "that 
the boy could possibly have noticed the glances ex- 
changed between the other boys over his ignorance; but 
it seems, from remarks made in later years, that he did, 
and he said in reference to my little act in exchanging 
books with him that he would stick by the fellow that 
had stood up by him and who had done him a good turn 
like that." 

At first he was a silent pupil, but one day he startled 
his teacher by the question, "That Moses, he was what 
you call a pretty smart man, wasn't he?" The question 
set the teacher to thinking about the boy, and his interest 
deepened with his thinking. He resolved to visit him at 
the store and to speak to him about his soul. Moody 
himself has told us the story: "One day I recollect the 
Sabbath School teacher came around behind the counter 
in the shop I was at work in, and put his hand on my 
shoulder to talk to me about Christ and my soul. I had 
not felt that I had a soul until then. I said : 'This is a 
strange thing; here is a man who never saw me until a 



42 Dwight L. .Moody. 

few days ago, and he is now weeping over my sins and I 
never shed a tear about them.' But I understand it now, 
and know what it is to have a passion for men's souls 
and weep over their sins. I don't remember what he said, 
but I can feel the power of that young man's hand on 
my shoulder to-night. . . . Well, it was not long 
before I was brought into the kingdom of God." 

Years afterwards a young man came to Moody one 
day in Chicago and introduced himself as a son of Mr. 
Kimball, his old teacher. "I am glad to see you," said 
Moody, "are you a Christian?" 

"No, sir." 

"How old are you?" 

"Seventeen years." 

"Just my age when your father led me to the Saviour, 
and it was just seventeen years ago this very day. Now, 
I desire to pay him by leading his son to Christ. Come, 
let us pray together." 

The young man went away under deep conviction, and 
shortly afterwards became a Christian. 

It has been said that when young Moody gave himself 
to Christ there was "not so complete a transformation as 
is sometimes wrought by saving grace." But to Moody 
himself there was no room for doubt that the change was 
genuine. "I used to have a terrible habit of swearing," 
he tells us. "Whenever I got mad out would come the 
oaths, but after I gave my heart to Christ he took the 
swearing all away, so that I did not have the least dis- 
position to take God's name in vain." Nor was he con- 
tent with giving up his evil habits ; he burned with desire 
to do something for his Lord. He sought opportunities 
to speak in the social meetings of the church, but these 
efforts brought him many discouragements. He had 



Ups and Downs of Youth. 43 

little or no command of language, and his sentences were 
awkward and broken. Besides, having been brought up 
by a Unitarian mother, he was not well grounded, in 
evangelical truths, and was always making mistakes. 
His shyness in the presence of the cultured was painful 
to witness. In short, his attempts at speaking were so 
pitiful that he was advised to hold his peace. 

When he applied for membership in the Mt. Vernon 
Church — to use his own words — "they would not have 
me, because they did not believe I was converted." "In 
the roughness of the setting the diamond was not dis- 
covered." "I can truly say," wrote Mr. Kimball, "and 
in saying it I magnify the infinite grace of God as be- 
stowed upon him, that I have known few persons whose 
minds were spiritually darker than was his when he 
came into my Sunday School class; and I think the 
committee of the Mt. Vernon Church seldom met an 
applicant for membership more unlikely ever to become 
a Christian of clear and decided views of the Gospel 
truths, still less to fill any extended sphere of public use- 
fulness." 

His Uncle Samuel Holton said that when Dwight 
read his Bible aloud he could make no more out of it 
than he could out of the chattering of blackbirds. Many 
of the words were so far beyond the youth that he left 
them out entirely, and many of the others he fearfully 
mangled. There can be no doubt that his knowledge 
of the principles of Christianity at this time was exceed- 
ingly meager. When he appeared before the committee 
he had been a Sunday School pupil but a few weeks. 
He was unable to state what it was to be a Christian, 
nor could he say what Christ had done for him. "Mr. 
Moody," asked a member of the committee, "what has 



44 Dwight,L- Moody. 

Christ done for us — for you — which entitles him to 
our respect?" He answered, "I don't know; I think 
Christ has done a good deal for us, but I don't think of 
anything particular, as I know of." Under these circum- 
stances the committee wisely deferred recommending 
him for admission into the church, and two of its mem- 
bers were designated to watch over him with kindness, 
and teach him "the way of God more perfectly." This 
was in May, 1855. When he appeared before the com- 
mitttee again in March of the following year, he ap- 
peared to have more light, and without confusing him 
with mere doctrinal questions, the committee decided to 
recommend him for admission. Eight years afterwards 
Moody expressed his gratitude to one of the officers of 
the church for the course that had been pursued in his 
case, and said that it was his conviction that its influence 
was favorable to his growth in grace. He believed that 
pastors and church officers generally were in error in 
hurrying new converts into a profession of faith. 

From this it will be seen how little ground there is for 
the saying so often made that the "staid and stiff New 
England orthodoxy was so barren that it would hardly 
admit to the Lord's table so devoted and earnest a ser- 
vant of Christ as Dwight L. Moody." As a matter of 
fact, Mt. Vernon Church was a revival church, and was 
organized for the purpose of retaining in Boston Dr. 
Kirk, who was for years one of the most useful evan- 
gelists of his time. "If there ever existed a man in New 
England," says Dr. Buckley, "who was free from the 
spirit of 'staid and stiff New England orthodoxy,' it was 
Dr. Kirk." 

When Moody was holding a meeting in London, one 
day he paused near the close of the service and said ab- 



Ups and Downs of Youth. 45 

ruptly: "I see in the house an eminent Christian gentle- 
man from Boston. Deacon Palmer, come right to the 
platform; the people want to hear from you." Mr. Pal- 
mer came forward reluctantly, and began a brief talk 
by referring to the fact that he had known Mr. Moody 
at home, and had indeed belonged to the same church 
with him, when Mr. Moody interrupted him. 

"Yes, deacon, and you kept me out of that church 
for many months because you thought I didn't know 
enough to join it." 

When the laughter of the audience had subsided, Mr. 
Palmer happily replied that all must agree with him that 
it was a great privilege to have received Mr. Moody into 
the church at all events, "though with great misgivings 
and after long delay." 




III. 

GETTING A START IN CHICAGO. 

N the autumn of 1856 Moody went to Chicago 
— as every young man of his day wanted to 
do — to grow up with the country. Perhaps 
fhe restraint which he felt in Boston had 
something to do with it. He was tired of being 
reminded of his unfitness for whatever he attempted, 
and longed for a place where people were not so 
particular. Two or three testimonials which with his 
Bible constituted his chief earthly possessions, secured 
for him a position in a shoe house, where he soon be- 
came known as one of the best salesmen in the city. 
His employer, Mr. Wiswell, who received him with mis- 
givings on account of his blunt speech and impetuous 
manner, recalls that he was the same zealous and tireless 
worker in business that he afterwards became in re- 
ligion. It was his pride to make the largest sales of any 
employe in the house, and his associates say that he 
was always breaking the record. 

Soon after his arrival in Chicago he connected him- 
self with the Plymouth Congregational Church and at 
once 'began to look about for an opportunity to do mis- 
sion work. He first rented four pews in the church 
and undertook to fill them with young men at the Sun- 
day services. Then he beg^an to speak in social meet- 
ings, but his unconventional way of saying things soon 
got him into trouble, and he found that in Chicago as 
well as in Boston there were good brethren ready to 
advise him to leave the speaking to those who could do 

(46) 



Getting a Start in Chicago. 49 

it better. Then, as if one church could not keep him 
employed, he began to attend Sunday School at the 
First Methodist Church, where he identified himself 
with a mission band, a company of young men who vis- 
ited the hotels, saloons and other public places to dis- 
tribute tracts and invite people to public worship. Here 
he became deeply interested in Sunday School work, 
but his restless nature would not allow him to be con- 
tent as a pupil and as yet he was unqualified to teach. 
Always quick to recognize his place he soon hit upon 
the idea of becoming a Sunday School recruiting officer. 
On one of his recruiting excursions he found himself • 
one day in a little Sunday School in North Wells street, 
where he offered to take a class. The superintendent 
told him that he had more teachers than he knew what 
to do with, but offered him the privilege of teaching any 
new scholars he might bring. On the following Sunday 
the new teacher appeared leading a procession of eigh- 
teen bare-footed, ragged, dirty street urchins, whom he 
undertook to form into a class. He soon found, how- 
ever, that he could more easily gather a class than teach 
it, and he turned over these recruits to o<ther teachers 
and went out into the streets again to find more. Encour- 
aged by his success in this line he resolved to start a 
Sunday School on his own account. At the foot of the 
Lake Shore Drive there was a low, filthy quarter known 
as "The Sands," or "Little Hell." In that day it was 
said to be more dangerous than "Five Points" in New 
York. Here Moody rented a deserted saloon and began 
to hold meetings on Sundays and occasionally in the 
evenings during the week. Within a stone's throw of 
this saloon there were about two hundred drinking and 
gambling dens. The streets swarmed with vicious men 
4 



50 Dwight, L. Moody. 

and degraded women, and crime was so common that 
the neighborhood was carefully avoided by all decent 
persons after nightfall. The outlook was not encour- 
aging, but here Moody was out of reach of his critics 
and this was a clear g~ain. In a few weeks he had suc- 
ceeded by sundry gifts of maple sugar and pretty leaflets 
in coaxing a large number of street urchins into his 
school and it was not long before he began to find a way 
to the hearts of their parents. 

The late Mr. William Reynolds was fond of recalling 
his first glimpse of young Moody at this school. "The 
first meeting I ever saw him at," he used to say, "was in 
a little old shanty that had been abandoned by a saloon- 
keeper. Mr. Moody had gotten the place to hold the 
meeting at night; I went there a little late and the first 
thing I saw was a man standing up, with a few tallow 
candles around him, holding a negro boy and trying to 
read to him the story of the Prodigal Son, and a great 
many of the words he could not make out and had to 
skip. I thought if the Lord can ever use such an instru- 
ment as that for his honor and glory it will astonish me. 
After that meeting was over Mr. Moody said to me: 
'Reynolds, I have got only one talent; I have no educa- 
tion, but I love the Lord Jesus Christ and I want to do 
something for him. I want you to pray for me.' I have 
never ceased from that day to this, morning and night, 
to pray for that devoted Christian soldier. I have 
watched him since then, have had counsel with him 
and know him thoroughly; and for consistent walk and 
conversation I have never met a man to equal him." 

The school presently outgrew the old saloon and was 
removed to the hall over the North Market, where 
young Moody developed remarkable gifts as an organ- 



Getting a Start in Chicago. 51 

izer. This hall was generally used Saturday nights for 
a dance and the superintendent was compelled to spend 
most of the forenoon on Sunday sweeping out the saw- 
dust and washing out the remains of tobacco and beer. 
There were no seats and the children were compelled to 
stand or sit on the floor. Moody endured this condition 
of affairs as long as he could and then put on his hat and 
went out to beg money to buy seats. On his begging 
tour he met Mr. J. V. Farwell, the philanthropist, who 
was already a prominent man of business. After getting 
the money he asked for he inquired what Mr. Farwell 
was doing in the way of Christian work and invited him 
to come and see his school. On the following Sunday 
Mr. Farwell appeared in the hall. The scene which met 
his eyes is not easily described. "That riotous crowd," 
writes Mr. Daniels, "seemed to be following the ex- 
ample of the Israelites in the time of the Judges, with 
one essential difference — namely that each was doing 
what was wrong in his own eyes with the evident pur- 
pose of mischievous enjoyment. The seats had not yet 
arrived ; the school was leaning up against the walls and 
scattered over the floor in ever-varying forms like the 
figures in the kaleidoscope, jumping, turning somer- 
saults, sparring, whistling, talking out loud, crying, 
Tapers!' 'Black your boots!' 'Have a shine, Mister?' 
— from which they were occasionally rescued by a 
Scripture reading from Mr. Stillson, or a song from 
Mr. Trudeau, or a speech from Mr. Moody, only to re- 
lapse again into clamor and uproar before the speaker 
or singer was fairly through. The emotions of Mr. Far- 
well on being introduced to make a speech were vivid 
rather than pleasing. He ventured a few words and 
only a few, lest he should weary the patience of his audi- 



52 Dvvight L., Moody. 

ence; but what was his horror at the close of his remarks 
to hear himself nominated by Moody as superintendent of 
the North Market Mission Sunday School, and before 
he had time to object the school had elected him with 
a deafening hurrah." It should be recorded to Mr. 
Farwell's credit that he accepted the office and at once 
entered upon its duties, which for six years he faith- 
fully performed with Moody's assistance. This school 
continued to increase in popularity and within a year 
the average attendance was about six hundred and fifty 
with an occasional attendance of a thousand. Before 
this time no school in the city had numbered more than 
one hundred and fifty. Of course all of the pupils did 
not come to school of their own accord: a large num- 
ber were regularly hunted up and brought into the 
school by Moody himself. On these recruiting excur- 
sions he had many thrilling experiences. Not being 
content with gathering up such children as he met in 
the streets he was in the habit of chasing them into the 
alleys and cellars, where "he often came across a Ro- 
man Catholic family and sometimes narrowly escaped 
with a whole head. The enraged father being tre- 
mendously mad with Moody for coaxing the young 
Papists away, on seeing his beaming face and sturdy 
form coming upstairs or in the door, sometimes seized 
a club and rushed at him with oaths and curses. At 
such times he used to say his legs were his best friends. 
But though they served so well to take him out of 
danger they always brought him back into it again, 
until at last his patience and good nature conquered all 
opposition. He adopted the Fabian policy and wore 
out his adversaries by constant light skirmishing, never 
venturing a battle, and in most cases his method was so 



Getting a Start in Chicago. 53 

successful that he not only overcame his enemies and 
captured their children for his mission, but generally 
won them over to be his friends." The story is told 
that one day he was emptying a jug of whiskey into a. 
gutter, when the owner of the whiskey and twenty 
O'thers surrounded him and threatened his life. He 
knelt and prayed fervently for protection and ended by 
leading his assailants to his mission, where the owner 
of the whiskey eventually became one of his teachers. 

In dealing with characters of this sort Moody dis- 
played remarkable shrewdness, as well as self-posses- 
sion. An incident which belongs to a later period well 
illustrates this point. One night as he left a mission, 
he found a number of roughs waiting to annoy him. 
As he hurried along, he heard one of them say, "Here 
he comes," and they made ready to jostle him from the 
sidewalk. Walking straight up to the ringleader, 
Moody held out his overcoat and coolly said, "My 
friend, won't you just help me on with this overcoat? 
I am not quite so active now as I was at your age, and 
some day when you are as old as I am, I will be glad to 
do you the same favor." The fellow was so completely 
upset that he could only obey, and he meekly held the 
overcoat for the evangelist to get into it. Moody then 
thanked him for his aid and went away unmolested. 

In addition to his Sunday School work in North 
Market Hall Moody conducted week-night prayer- 
meetings in the old saloon near by. Here he began to 
learn the true work o>f a pastor, for he was brought face 
to face with the sins and sorrows of the people as he 
had never been before. One of the stories which he 
loves to tell relates to this period. 

"One of our friends reported a family where there 



54 Dwight L. -Moody. 

were several children who had been attending North 
Market School, but whose father was a notorious infidel 
rumseller and wouldn't let them come. 

"I called on him, but as soon as I made known my 
errand I was obliged to get out of that place very 
quickly in order to save my head. 

" 'I would rather my son should be a thief and my 
daughter a harlot than have you make fools and Chris- 
tians of them at your Sunday School,' said he. 

"One day I found the man in a little better humor 
than usual and asked him if he had ever read the New 
Testament. He said he hadn't, and then asked me if 
I had ever read Paine's 'Age of Reason.' He then 
agreed to read the Testament if I would read Paine's 
book. He had the best of the bargain, but it gave me a 
chance to call again to bring him the book. After read- 
ing through that mass of infidel abomination I called 
on him again to see how he got on with the Testament, 
but found him full of objection and hot for a debate. 

' 'See here, young man,' said he, 'you are inviting me 
and my family to go to meeting; now you may have 
a meeting here if you like.' 

' 'What, will you let me preach here in your sa- 
loon?' 

" 'Yes/ said he. 

" 'And will you bring in your family, and let me bring 
in the neighbors?' 

" 'Yes. But mind, you are not to do all the talking. 
I and my friends have something to say.' 

' 'All right. You shall have forty-five minutes, and 
I will have fifteen.' 

"The time for the meeting was set, and when I got 
there I found a great crowd of atheists, blasphemers, 



Getting a Start in Chicago. 55 

and other wild characters waiting for a chance to make 
mince-meat of me, and use up the New Testament for- 
ever. 

" 'You shall begin,' said I. 

"Upon this they began to ask questions. 

' 'No questions! I haven't come to argue with you, 
but to preach Christ to you. Go on and say what you 
like, and then I will speak.' 

"Then they began to talk among themselves; but it 
wasn't long before they quarreled over their own differ- 
ent unbeliefs, so that what began as a debate was in 
danger of ending in a fight. 

' 'Order ! Your time is up. I am in the habit of be- 
ginning my addresses with prayer. Let us pray.' 

' 'Stop! stop!' said one. 'There's no use in your pray- 
ing. Besides, your Bible says there must be "two 
agreed" if there is to be any praying; and you are all 
alone.' 

"I replied that perhaps some of them might feel like 
praying before I got through, and so I opened my heart 
to God. 

"When I had finished, a little boy, who had been con- 
verted in the Mission School and had come with me 
to this strange meeting, began to pray. His childish 
voice and simple faith at once attracted the closest at- 
tention. As he went on telling the Lord all about these 
wicked men, and begging him to help them to b>elieve in 
Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost fell upon the assembly. A 
great solemnity came over those hard-hearted infidels 
and scoffers; there was not a dry eye in the room. Pretty 
soon they began to be frightened. They rus'hed out, 
some by one door and some by the other — did not stop 
to hear a word of the sermon, but fled from the place as 
if it had been haunted. 



56 Dwight L. Moody. 

"As a result of this meeting we captured all the old 
infidel's children for our Sunday School; and a little 
while after the man himself stood up in the noonday 
prayer-meeting and begged us to pray for his miserable 
soul." 

One of the annoyances to which Moody was sub- 
jected was the repeated breaking of the windows by 
some boys whose parents were Roman Catholics. 
When his patience had become exhausted he went to 
Bishop Duggan and laid his grievances before him. 
He told the bishop that he w r as trying to do good in 
a part of the city which had been badly neglected, and 
that it was a shame that members of the bishop's church 
should break the windows of his school room. The zeal 
of the man surprised and delighted the bishop, who 
promised that the lambs of his flock should hereafter 
be duly restrained. Encouraged by this promise, 
Moody went on to state that he often came upon sick 
people who were Roman Catholics and that he would 
be very glad to pray with them and relieve them, but' 
that they were so suspicious of him they would not 
allow him to come near them. If the bishop would give 
him a good word to these people it would help him 
amazingly in his work of charity. The bishop very 
kindly replied that he should be most happy to give the 
recommendation if Mr. Moody would only join the 
Catholic Church, telling him at the same time he 
seemed to be too good and valuable a man to be a 
heretic. 

"I am afraid that would hinde*r me in my work among 
the Protestants," said Moody. 

"Not at all," said the bishop. 

"What, do you mean to say I could go to trie noon- 



Getting a Start in Chicago. 57 

day prayer-meetings and pray with all kinds of Chris- 
tian people, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist alto- 
gether, just as I do now?" 

"Oh, yes," replied the bishop, "if it were necessary 
you might do that." 

"So then, Protestants and Catholics can pray to- 
gether?" 

"Yes." 

"Well, bishop, this is an important matter and ought 
to be attended to at once. No man wants to belong to 
the true Church more than I do. I wish you would 
pray for me right here and ask God to show me the true 
Church and help me to be a worthy member of it." 

Of course, the prelate could not refuse, so they 
knelt together and the bishop prayed very lovingly for 
him and when he had finished Moody 'began to pray for 
the bishop. From that day to the day of his death 
Bishop Duggan and Moody were fast friends. 

The fame of Moody's North Market Mission Sunday 
School soon became noised abroad and he began to re- 
ceive calls to speak at Sunday School conventions in dif- 
ferent parts of the State and subsequently in other States. 
Wherever he went his enthusiasm and wonderful 
common-sense gave him great power with his audiences 
and he began to be recognized as a leader in Sunday 
School work. His habit of saying unconventional 
things, however, sometimes got him into trouble at 
these conventions, as it had done in the social meetings 
of the church at home. 

"I suppose they used to think me a nuisance," said 
Mr. Moody years afterwards. "I used to think I must 
say something in every meeting I attended until one 
^ood minister advised me to hold my tongue." This 



58 Dwight L. Moody. 

advice, instead of making- him angry, only set him to 
thinking how he could make his speech more edifying. 
Writing of his public utterances at this period one of 
his friends says: ''Moody was all the time making blun- 
ders, but he never made the same mistake twice." 

"Moody," said a friend to him one day, "if you want 
to draw wine out of a cask it is needful first to put some 
in. You are all the time talking and you ought to begin 
to study." To this Moody readily assented and his 
friend suggested a course of reading to which the young 
man took very kindly. Before he had fully entered 
upon it, however, his friend left the city, "and thus nar- 
rowly," says a writer, "did he escape becoming a book- 
ish man." Often, however, Moody was more than a 
match for his critics. "You ought not to attempt to 
speak in public, Moody," said a man to him one day, 
"you make many mistakes in grammar." "I know I 
make mistakes," said Moody, "and I lack a great many 
things; but I am doing the best I can with what I have 
got. But, look here, friend, you have grammar enough, 
what are you doing with it for Jesus?" 




IV. 

SEPARATED UNTO THE WORK. 

HAVE always been an ambitious man," 
said Moody to his sons as he lay dying, "not 
ambitious to lay up wealth, but to leave you 
work to do." Several newspapers the next 
day quoted him as saying that he had always been am- 
bitious to "Hud work to do." It was a suggestive mis- 
take. It would have been so natural for Moody, if he 
had been speaking to the world, to have said these very 
words; but he was speaking to his own sons, and be- 
cause as a man he had always been anxious to find work 
to do for himself, as a father, his ambition was to leave 
his sons work to do. Moody had not been in Chicago 
three years when his ambition to find work brought him 
to a point where he was too busy to make a living. Some- 
how, he had found a way into almost every good work 
that was going on. 

Among the enterprises in which he became interested 
was the Young Men's Christian Association, which was 
just beginning to get a foothold in the city. What 
Moody was to the Young Men's Christian Association, 
and what the Association was to Moody, is a subject 
which deserves, and I hope will have, a volume by itself. 
All through his evangelistic career he was accustomed to 
say that he was more indebted to the Association for his 
success as an evangelist than to any other organized 
means of grace; and it is safe to say that the Associa- 
tion is more indebted to him for its success than to any 
other man. 

(59) 



60 Dwight L. Moody. 

The first forward step of the Chicago Association was 
an attempt to hold a noonday prayer-meeting. The idea 
quickly took possession of Moody and Moody soon took 
possession of the prayer-meeting. At this time, however, 
his business frequently called him out of town, and owing 
to his absence the meeting presently began to drag. Mr. 
Daniels tells a story of a good old Scotch woman who 
went to the meeting one day and found no one present. 
This good sister had set great store by the noonday ser- 
vice, and when after waiting no one else appeared, she 
determined to hold it herself. So she put on her spec- 
tacles, mounted the platform, read a passage of Scrip- 
ture, talked it over to herself to the comfort of her dear 
old heart, and then offered a prayer for the languishing 
meeting, and for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon 
it. This incident coming to Moody's ears impressed him 
so deeply that he at once set to work to secure recruits, 
with the result that the average attendance was increased 
nearly one hundred. 

Some of his most effective mission work was done as 
chairman of the visiting committee of the Association. 
"He purchased an old pony, and mounted thereupon was 
often seen riding through the miserable lanes and alleys 
of the North Side, a bevy of ragged children hanging to 
his saddle, and rejoicing in the" loving words of their 
own 'Deacon Moody.' ' His opportunities for work in- 
creased as his methods became better understood, until 
he was foremost in almost every enterprise of the Asso- 
ciation. At one time he was — to use his own words — 
"president, secretary, janitor, and everything else." 

The school in Old Market Hall was now growing with 
marvelous rapidity. The history of this mission reads 
like a romance. One of Moody's friends who visited the 



Separated Unto the Work. 63 

hall about this time wrote : "I have rarely beheld such a 
scene of high pressure evangelization. It made me think 
irresistibly of our breathing steamboats on the Missis- 
sippi that must either go fast or burst. Mr. Moody him- 
self moved energetically about the school most of the 
time, seeing that everybody was at work, throwing in a 
word where he thought it necessary, and inspiring every 
one with his own enthusiasm. As soon as the class had 
been going on a specific number of minutes, he mounted 
the platform, rang a bell and addressed the children." 
He is described at this time as a keen, dark-eyed man 
with a small, shrill voice, but with thorough earnestness 
of manner and delivery. His remarks were few, but 
always to the point and full of interrogation. 

Moody had already won the hearts of the little ragged 
urchins of the entire community, but he still had trouble 
with many of the parents, who regarded him with sus- 
picion, and occasionally with the ruffians that infested 
the neighborhood. On one occasion, when he was out 
looking up children for his school, three vicious looking 
men confronted him and declared that they were going 
to kill him. 

"Look here," said Moody, "just give a fellow a chance 
to say his prayers, won't you?" 

"Oh, yes, go on," they said. 

And kneeling down, he prayed with such earnestness 
that his assailants became uneasy and quietly slipped 
away. 

At another time when he found himself surrounded in 
a miserable den, he coolly said : 

"We are your friends ; come, let us have a song." 

While Mr. Stillson, his assistant, sang a Gospel hymn, 
the would-be murderers grew quiet, and when the song 



64 Dwight L. Moody. 

was ended Moody dropped on his knees and began to 
pray. The upshot of the matter was that they came 
away, not only with their lives, but with the children 
they wanted for the school. These children, it is said, 
were all subsequently converted. 

The tremendous earnestness of the young missionary 
as he went about doing good is best described in his own 
words. "I made up my mind," he said, "that I would 
go on as if there were not another man in the world but 
I to do the work. I knew I had to give an account of 
my stewardship. I suppose they said of me, 'Oh, he is a 
fanatic; he is a radical; he has only one idea.' Well, it 
is a glorious idea. I would rather have that said of me 
than be a man of ten thousand ideas and do nothing with 
them." 

One Saturday night, in company with Mr. Stillson, 
he went into a saloon which was owned by a young man 
who was the son of Christian parents. "Do they know 
that you are selling liquor?" asked Moody. With these 
words he passed on, but before he had gone far it oc- 
curred to him that he had not prayed with him. He 
returned, and kneeling down upon the sawdust of the 
saloon, plead with the Lord to save the young man. 

"I never," said Mr. Stillson, "heard Moody pray like 
that before; it seemed as if the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost was upon him." The prayer was answered, and 
the man was afterwards heard to declare that he would 
rather die a pauper than make his living by selling rum. 

As a soul-winner, young Moody was never off duty. 
Whether in the slums or in the best part of the city, 
whether in the homes of the people or on the streets or 
trains or boats — wherever he went, "in season and out 
of season," he was plying his vocation as a fisher of men. 



Separated Unto the Work. 65 

"It was in a railway train one day," said a gentleman, 
"when a stout, cheery looking stranger came in and sat 
down in the seat beside me. We were passing through 
a beautiful country, to which he called my attention* 
saying: 'Did you ever think what a good Heavenly 
Father we have to give us such a pretty world to live 
in?' 

" 'Yes, indeed,' said I. 

" 'Are you a Christian ?' 

" 'No.' 

" 'But you ought to be one at once. I am to get off 
at the next station,' he continued. 'If you will kneel 
down right here I will pray to the Lord to make you 
a Christian.' Scarcely knowing what I did, I knelt down 
beside him there in the car filled with passengers, and 
he prayed for me with all his heart. Then the train 
drew up at the station and he only had time to get off 
when it started on again. Suddenly coming to myself, 
out of what seemed more like a dream than a reality, 
I rushed out on the car platform and shouted after him, 
'Tell me who you are !' 

" 'My name is Moody.' 

"I never could shake off the conviction which then 
took hold of me until the strange man's prayer was an- 
swered and I had become a Christian." 

In i860 the mission work had grown to such propor- 
tions that it could no longer be carried on as a side issue. 
It needed one man's undivided time, and Moody saw it. 
He was getting a good salary in the jobbing department 
of a shoe store. His employer, speaking of him as a 
business man, said that he regarded him as an excellent 
salesman, though he was a poor judge of credits. "In one 
particular instance he sold goods amounting to over two 
5 



66 Dwight L. Moody. 

hundred dollars to a man whom we found rated as 
'doubtful' in the Mercantile Directory; and we therefore 
refused to send the goods; but Moody at once came to 
the rescue of his customer, declaring him to be as good 
as the Bank of England, and offered to be responsible 
for the bill. With this we sent the goods, and when the 
money was due, sure enough it was Moody who paid it." 

His associates felt that he had a brilliant future before 
him in business if he did not allow his religious zeal 
to spoil it all, but the pressure brought upon him by the 
growth of his mission had now become so great that he 
either had to give up his position or draw in his lines of 
Christian effort. About this time — but we have the story 
in his own words : 

"As I was thinking this morning before daybreak of 
my last sermon with you" — I give the incident as he 
related it in one of his New York meetings — "I thought 
of the call which God gave me to leave my occupation 
six and thirty years ago. I confess I couldn't keep back 
the tears. Instead of living in the wilderness, as Moses 
did for forty years, I have been called to work in the 
harvest-field. Everything beckoned me to remain in 
business. I had a widowed mother, whom I ought to 
help support. My business was prosperous for those 
days. I had no education. I couldn't put a sentence to- 
gether properly. I didn't have a friend who would not 
call me mad to give up my business. But louder and 
louder came the call. I gave up my business, and people 
called me crazy; but thank God that I took that stand 
when I did. 

"When I thought this morning of the two men who 
have stood on this platform within forty-eight hours and 
have testified to the saving grace of God — those men who 



Separated Unto the Work. 67 

were converted in Baltimore sixteen years ago, one now 
a preacher of the Gospel, and the other a detective who 
has been working for God ever since his conversion — I 
said, 'Thank God I ever entered the work! I wouldn't 
change my position for any throne on earth.' If I piled 
up millions, what would they amount to when compared 
with the privilege of being a co-worker with God ? 

"I will tell you how I got waked up on this point and 
came to a decision. I had a large Sunday School in 
Chicago, with twelve or fifteen hundred scholars. I was 
very much pleased with the numbers. If the attendance 
kept up, I was pleased ; but I didn't see a convert. I was 
not looking for conversions. There was one class in a 
corner of the large hall, made up of young women, who 
caused more trouble than any other class in the school. 
There was only one man who could ever manage that 
class and keep it in order. If he could keep the class 
quiet, it was about as much as we could hope for. 

"One day this teacher was missing, and I taught the 
class. The girls laughed in my face. I never felt so 
tempted to turn any one from Sunday School as I did 
those girls. I never saw such frivolous girls. I couldn't 
make any impression on them. The next day the teacher 
came into the store. I noticed that he looked very pale, 
and I asked what was the trouble. T have been bleed- 
ing at the lungs,' he said, 'and the doctor tells me that 
I cannot live. I must give up my class and go back to 
my widowed mother in New York State.' As he spoke 
to me his chin quivered and the tears began to flow. I 
said I was sorry, and added, 'You're not afraid of death, 
are you?' Oh no, I am not afraid to die, but I shall soon 
stand before my Master. What shall I tell him of my 
class? Not one of them is a Christian. I have made a 
failure of my work/ 



68 Dwight L. Moody. 

"I had never heard any one speak in that way, and I 
said, 'Why not visit every girl and ask her to become a 
Christian?' 'I am very weak,' he said, 'too weak to 
walk.' I offered to get a carriage and go with him. 
He consented, and we started out. Going first to one 
house and then to another, that pale teacher, sometimes 
staggering on the sidewalk, sometimes leaning on my 
arm, saw each girl, and, calling her by name, Mary, or 
Martha, or whatever it was, asked her to become a 
Christian, telling her that he was going home to die 
and that he wanted to know that his scholars had given 
their hearts to God. Then he would pray with her and 
I would pray with her. So we went from house to 
house. After he used up all his strength I would take 
him home, and the next day we would go out again. 
Sometimes he went alone. At the end of ten days he 
came into the store, his face beaming with joy, and said, 
'The last girl has yielded her heart to Christ. I am 
going home now ; I have done all that I can do, and my 
work is done.' 

"I asked when he was going, and he said, 'To-morrow 
night.' I said, 'Would you like to see your class to- 
gether before you go? 1 He said he would, and I asked 
if he thought the landlady would allow the use of her 
sitting-room. He thought she would. So I sent word 
to all the girls, and they all came together. I had never 
spent such a night up to that time. I had never met 
such a large number of young converts. The teacher 
gave an earnest talk and then prayed, and then I prayed. 
As I was about to rise I heard one of the girls begin to 
pray. She prayed for her teacher and she prayed for the 
superintendent. Up to that time I never knew that any 
one prayed for me in that way. When she finished an- 



Separated Unto the Work. 69 

other girl prayed. Before we arose every girl had prayed. 
What a change had come over them in a short space of 
time! We tried to sing, but we did not get on very 
well. 

" « Blest be the tie that binds 
Our hearts in Christian love. ' 

"We bade one another 'Good-bye,' but I felt that I 
must see the teacher again before he left Chicago, and so 
I met him at the station, and while we were talking one 
of the girls came along, and then another, until the whole 
class had assembled. They were all there on the plat- 
form. It was a beautiful summer night. The sun was 
just setting down behind the western prairies. It was 
a sight I shall never forget. A few gathered around us 
— the fireman, engineer, brakeman, and conductor of the 
train, and some of the passengers lifted their windows 
as the class sang together : 

" ' Here we meet to part again, 

But when we meet on Canaan's shore 
There'll be no parting there.' 

"As the train moved out of the station the pale-faced 
teacher stood on the platform, and, with his finger 
pointing heavenward, he said, T will meet you yonder,' 
then the train disappeared from view." 

When Moody turned away from the station the strug- 
gle of his life had begun. It is not permitted us to fol- 
low a man upon whom God has laid his hand at such 
a moment; but one day when he came forth from his 
place of prayer his face was set as a flint. He had sur- 
rendered all, and would follow him. 

When his employer asked him how he expected to sup- 
port himself, he answered, "God will provide for me if 



jo Dwight L., Moody. 

he wants me to keep on, and I shall keep on until I am 
obliged to stop." When his friends rebuked him for his 
improvidence, he would simply say, "God is rich, and 
I am working for him," and pass on. There were times 
when the prophecies of his friends seemed dangerously 
near fulfillment, but he kept on. When his little savings 
were exhausted, he gave up his lodgings and took refuge 
in the rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association, 
where he slept on the prayer-room benches. He ate when 
he found a chance. 

His financial difficulties continued for years. There 
were times when he was tempted to feel that he had 
made a mistake. One morning, not long after his mar- 
riage, he said to his wife, "I have no money, and the 
house is without supplies. It looks as if the Lord had 
had enough of me in this mission work, and is going to 
send me back again to sell boots and shoes." A day or 
two later he received two checks of fifty dollars each — 
one for his mission and the other for himself — which he 
accepted as a sign that his work was in the Lord's favor, 
and took courage. In 1868 his friends, led by Mr. Far- 
well the philanthropist, gave him a comfortable home; 
but the great fire of 1871 destroyed his house with all 
its contents, and he was again destitute. 

From the day he gave up his position as a salesman 
he absolutely refused to take time to look after his per- 
sonal interests. He felt that he was engaged in the 
Lord's business, and that it was an easy matter for the 
Lord to look after the running expenses. Besides, he 
was afraid of money, and was always exceedingly care- 
ful to steer clear of financial entanglements and tempta- 
tions of every sort. Though abundantly supplied with 
shrewd business sense, he used it only for the great en- 



Separated Unto the Work. 71 

terprises which he inaugurated. The money which 
passed through his hands sometimes amounted, it is said, 
to several hundred thousand dollars a year, yet he was so 
circumspect in all his financial dealings that not a breath 
of suspicion was ever attached to him. In London he 
was offered a thousand pounds to sit for his picture, but 
he indignantly refused ; and it is said that he frequently 
declined offers of large sums for his personal use, fear- 
ing that the money would prove a snare to him. 




V. 

THE WAR AND AFTER. 

OODY had adopted the rule to go, not where 
he was needed, but where he was needed 
most. When the war broke out he found 
himself between two fires. He was badly 
needed at home and he was badly needed at the front, 
and it was difficult to decide which way to turn. His 
exertions during this trying period were almost super- 
human. He would rush from the city to camp to look 
after the needs of the soldiers, and the moment he felt 
that he could leave them he would rush back to the city 
again to look after his home mission and to raise money 
for his mission in camp. And every day the work 
pressed harder and the limit of human strength was 
strained. 

His first work among the soldiers was at Camp 
Douglas. Here he conducted prayer-meetings, and soon 
raised enough money to build a chapel — the first camp 
chapel of the war. One of his associates used to say that 
in camp Moody was "almost ubiquitous." "He would 
hasten from one barrack and camp to another, day and 
night, week-days and Sundays, praying, exhorting, con- 
versing personally with the men about their souls and 
reveling in the abundant work and swift success which 
the war had brought in his reach." Later as a member 
of the Christian Commission, he visited the camps all 
over the country, and in hospitals and on many battle- 
fields ministered to the wants of the sick and wounded. 
"Like the men who went down to the sea in ships," says 

(72) 




MOODY READY FOR WORK. 



The War and After. 75 

Mr. Daniels, "Moody and his brethren saw God's won- 
ders in camp and field. Having so many sinners to point 
to the Saviour, and so little time in which to do it, he 
prayed to the Lord to do his 'short work.' So many 
men found the Saviour and died while they were praying 
for them that they came to have a strange familiarity 
with heaven. These souls seemed to be messengers be- 
tween them and God, carrying up continually the fresh 
and glowing record of the work they were doing in his 
name, and so simple and easy did it become for them to 
'ask and receive' that they were rather surprised if the 
penitent soldier for whose conversion they prayed was 
not blessed before they reached Amen." 

Several stories, which Moody was fond of telling in 
after years, vividly illustrate the character of the wonder- 
ful work which went on in the camps during these trying 
times. "I remember after the battle of Pittsburg Land- 
ing," he would say, "I was down there in the army point- 
ing the soldiers the way to Christ, and one time I fell 
down — it was after battle ; I had been a number of nights 
up and wanted rest, and so went to bed. By and by a 
man came to me and said, 'A man wants to see you at 
the hospital,' and I went to the man and found him lying 
almost at the point of death. Said he, 'Chaplain' — he 
called me chaplain, although I was not the chaplain — 
'Chaplain, 1 wish you would help me to die.' And I said, 
T would carry you into the kingdom of God if I could, 
but I cannot.' Said he, 'Can't you help me?' I pointed 
him to Jesus. And by and by I found that, away back 
in the North, he had a mother, and when he went away 
from home, he told me, she said to him at the parting, 
Tf you were a Christian I could let you go ; but you are 
going to this war, perhaps never to return, and the 



j6 Dwight L. Moody. 

thought that you are not a Christian is just breaking my 
heart.' 'I told her,' he said, 'to never mind that; that I 
would be a Christian when I came back. She said that 
perhaps I never would come again, but I told her 
that I would risk it ; I should be back, and I would settle 
the question then. And now,' said he, 'I am dying away 
from mother, and can't see her again. Chaplain, can't 
you help me?' 

"I got down and prayed with him, but it seemed to 
me that the shades of eternal death were fast gathering 
round him. Then I read what Christ said to Nico- 
demus. Perhaps it was at the same hour of the day that 
I am talking to you. I went on to read, and it seemed as 
though if I had got a letter from the very throne of God, 
the man couldn't have been more eager to hear it. His 
eyes and ears were open to catch the truth. I read along, 
and when I got to the fourteenth verse, the remedy : 'As 
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so 
shall the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever be- 
lieveth in him should not perish, but have eternal life;' 
the dying man cried, 'Stop! Is that there?' 'Yes,' says 
I, 'it is here.' 'Oh, sir, won't you read that again,' he said, 
'it sounds so good.' I read very slowly the second time: 
'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even 
so must the Son of Man be lifted up ; that whosoever be- 
lieveth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.' 
His elbows were resting on the edge of the cot, and he. 
brought his dying hands together, and he said, 'Bless 
God for that! Won't you please read it to me once 
more?' And I read it the third time: 'As Moses lifted up 
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of 
Man be lifted up ; that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the 



The War and After. 77 

world, that he gave his only begotten Son that whoso- 
ever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world 
to condemn the world, but that the world through him 
might be saved.' 

"I read the whole chapter; but his eyes were closed. 
It seemed to me as though there was no other verse that 
aroused his attention. His arms were folded on his 
breast, and when I got through I noticed his lips were 
saying something. I reached over my ear, and I could 
hear a faint whisper, 'As Moses — lifted up the serpent — 
in the wilderness — even so must the Son of Man — be 
lifted up — that whosoever believeth in him — should not 
perish — but should have everlasting — life.' He opened 
his eyes, and he fixed his calm, sweet deathly look on 
me, and said : 'That is enough, Chaplain ; I understand it 
now; Christ has been lifted up for me.' And he rested 
his soul on the truth of these two verses. 

"I talked and prayed with him a while longer, and 
left him. Yes, there was truth enough in those two 
verses to save that man. In the morning, when I got up 
and went to his cot I found it empty; he had died and 
had been carried away. I asked the nurse, 'Did he say 
nothing?' I was told that he appeared to keep talking 
over something to himself. 'What did he say?' I asked. 
And the nurse replied that he repeated these words : 
'As Moses was lifted up in the wilderness, even so must 
the Son of Man be lifted up ; that whosoever believeth 
in him should have eternal life.' Thus had he passed on 
to glory, his mother's prayers had been answered, and, 
yes, I could imagine him sweeping up from that cot into 
the pearly gates of the city of God ! And perhaps that 
mother has met him there." 



78 Dwight L. Moody. 

At Nashville a young man came to Moody, trembling 
from head to foot. 

"What is the trouble?" Moody asked. 

"There is a letter I got from my sister, and she tells 
me every night as the sun goes down she goes down on 
her knees and prays for me." 

"This man," said Mr. Moody, "was brave — had been 
in a number of battles ; he could stand before the cannon's 
mouth, and yet this letter completely upset him." 

"I have been trembling ever since I received it," said 
the man. In telling the story, Moody said: "Six hun- 
dred miles away the faith of this girl went to work and 
its influence was felt by the brother. He did not believe 
in prayer; he did not believe in Christianity; he did not 
believe in his mother's Bible. His mother was a praying 
woman, and when she died she left on earth a praying 
daughter, and when God saw her faith and heard those 
prayers, he answered her. How many sons and daugh- 
ters could be saved if their mothers and fathers had but 
faith!" 

Moody's war experiences provided him with many 
such instances of remarkable answers to prayer. One 
night some members of his party "found themselves on 
the battlefield in charge of a great many wounded sol- 
diers, who by the retreat of the army had been left 
wholly without shelter or supplies. Having done their 
best for the poor fellows, bringing them water from a 
distant stream and searching the haversacks for rations, 
they began to say to themselves and one another, 'these 
weak and wounded men must have food or they will die. 
The army is out of reach, and there is no village for 
many miles; what are we to do?' 'Pray to God,' said 
one, 'to send us bread,' That night in the midst of the 



The War and After. 79 

dead and dying* they held a little prayer-meeting, telling 
the Lord all about the case, and begging him to send 
them bread immediately; though from whence it could 
come they had not the remotest idea. All night they 
plied their work of mercy. With the first ray of dawn 
the sound of an approaching wagon caught their ears, 
and presently through the mist of morning appeared a 
great Dutch farm-wagon piled to the very top with 
loaves of bread. On their asking the driver where it 
came from and who sent him, he replied : 'When I went 
to bed last night I knew that the army was gone, and I 
could not sleep for thinking of the poor fellows who 
always have to stay behind; something seemed to say 
to me, "What will those poor fellows do for something 
to eat?" It came to me so strong that I waked up my 
wife and told her what was the matter. We had only a 
little bread in the house, and while my wife was making 
some more I took my team and went around to all my 
neighbors, making them get up and give me all the bread 
in their houses, telling them that it was for the wounded 
soldiers. When I got home my wagon was full, my old 
wife piled her baking on the top and I started off to bring 
the bread to the boys, feeling just as if the Lord himself 
was sending me.' " 

In the midst of the tremendous rush of those days 
Moody somehow found time to choose a wife, and on the 
28th of August, 1862, he was married to Miss Emma C. 
Revell, a sister of Fleming H. Revell, the publisher. Miss 
Revell had been for some time assisting him in his mis- 
sion school, and was, therefore, from the beginning in 
full sympathy with his work. She is described as a 
woman of remarkable sweetness of disposition, with an 
abundance of strong common-sense, and a loving man^ 



80 Dwight L. Moody. 

ner which endears her to all whom she meets. As a wife, 
she supplemented her husband in every way, and was all 
through his life a true helpmeet. "The spirit of his com- 
panion," said a visitor to their home, "harmonizes per- 
fectly with his spirit, and her sympathy and tenderness 
are among heaven's choicest gifts to him." A stranger 
who happened one day in Moody's mission school noticed 
a lady teaching about forty middle-aged men in the 
gallery. Looking at her and then at the class, he said 
to Moody, "Isn't that lady altogether too young to teach 
such a class of men?" He replied, "She gets along very 
well, and seems to succeed in her teaching." The 
stranger did not appear to be altogether satisfied. In a 
few moments he appproached the superintendent again, 
and with becoming gravity, said, "Mr. Moody, I cannot 
but feel that that lady must be altogether too young to 
instruct such a large company of men. Will you, sir, 
please inform me who she is?" "Certainly," replied 
Moody. "That is my wife." 

The Northfield people have always loved her as they 
loved Moody himself, and her influence in the com- 
munity, as well as in her husband's schools, has always 
been strongly felt. It is her custom to present the girls 
at the Seminary their diplomas on graduating day, and 
the girls of the whole community, as well as the school, 
are continually coming to her for advice. 

Moody and his young wife were very happy in their 
humble Chicago home, though the first years of their 
married life were' constantly beset with financial difficul- 
ties; and the children that came to them — there were 
three in all, William, Emma and Paul — opened up for 
the evangelist a new field of study, in which he reaped 
larger results than in any other field outside of his Bible. 



The War and After. 8i 

Few men have ever come so close to the budding minds 
of their own children, and no preacher ever got more 
effective illustrations from child life than he. "No 
father," says Dr. Clark, "was ever more fond of his 
children than Mr. Moody. He played with them as 
though he was a child himself, and entered into their 
sports often with the greatest glee. Mr. D. Russell 
Nover, of Albany, to whom I gave a letter of introduc- 
tion to him, called and presented it just after he had 
taken his tea. Reading the letter he said, 'Ah, yes ; from 
Dr. Clark. Now, children, let me present you to my 
friend, and we will have a good romp.' Without wait- 
ing for the least ceremony, the young man was at once 
received as a member of the family, and admitted to all 
the home privileges, including a good play with the chil- 
dren." 

In the first years of Moody's work in New Market 
Hall he had depended upon visiting ministers and 
theological students to do the preaching. One night the 
supply failed to appear and Moody undertook to fill his 
place. His simple gospel talk found its. way into the 
hearts of the audience, and soon there was a clamor for 
more talks of the same sort. The parents of the Sun- 
day School children began to come to the meetings (for 
Moody was now the most influential man in the neigh- 
borhood, and his word commanded respect even among 
the worst element in the community), and the congrega- 
tion became so large that it was found necessary to pro- 
vide a new place of worship. At this juncture Moody, 
having in view the needs of several hundred converts 
whom he had gathered out of the slums, decided to or- 
ganize a church of his own. His plan was to make it 
a free, independent church, based on the simple unsecta- 
6 



82 Dwight L. Moody. 

rian principles of the gospel. "This body of believers," 
says one of the articles adopted by the congregation, "de- 
sires to be known only as Christians without reference 
to any denomination, while the common evangelical doc- 
trines are fully recognized. The plan is to unite in one 
all who are willing to co-operate in carrying on the work 
of the Master." The organization was effected with a 
membership of three hundred, and steps were imme- 
diately taken to build a large chapel on Illinois street. 
This chapel was completed in 1863 at a cost of $20,000, 
and the church under Moody's leadership entered upon 
a career of usefulness which is perhaps without a par- 
allel in the history of city mission work. No member 
of the congregation was allowed to be idle. The leader 
was only a layman (for Moody was never ordained), 
and received no salary, but he succeeded in infusing his 
own spirit into his people, and almost every member of 
the church became a winner of souls. Services of some 
kind were held every evening in the week and conver- 
sions were of nightly occurrence. After the war Moody 
was able to give more time to this work, and the amount 
of energy which he expended in visiting the poor and de- 
graded, in preaching and exhortation and prayer, seems 
almost incredible. 

"I am used up," he said one morning to his friend, 
Colonel Hammond ; "I can't think or speak or do any- 
thing else; you must take my meeting to-night; I have 
nothing left in me." That night Colonel Hammond 
went to church prepared to conduct the service, but just 
as he was rising to speak, Moody rushed in with a large 
band of young men whom he had gathered out of the 
slums, and entering the pulpit, preached one of the ten- 
derest and most effective sermons of his life. He did 
not know how to rest nor how to let any one else rest. 



The War and After. 83 

His manner of making calls among the poor of his 
parish — and his parish was made o up of the poor — has 
been strikingly described by Mr. Hitchcock, who was at 
this time superintendent of his Sunday School. "On 
reaching a family belonging to his congregation," says 
Mr. Hitchcock, ''he would spring out of the omnibus, 
run up the stairway (for most of the families lived in 
garrets), rush in the room and pay his respects, as fol- 
lows : 'You know me ; I am Moody ; this is Deacon 
DeGoyler; this is Deacon Thane; this is Brother Hitch- 
cock. Are you all well? Do you all come to church 
and Sunday School ? Have you all the coal you need for 
the winter? Let us pray.' Saying this, Mr. Moody 
would offer an earnest, tender, sympathetic supplication 
that God would bless the man, his wife and each one of 
his children, then springing to his feet, he would dash 
on his hat, dart through the doorway and down the stair- 
way, throw a hearty good-bye behind him, leap into the 
omnibus and off to the next place on his list; the entire 
exercise occupying only about one minute and a half. 
Before long the horses were tired out, for Moody in- 
sisted on their going in a run from house to house; so 
the omnibus was abandoned and the party proceeded on 
foot. One after another his companions became ex- 
hausted with running upstairs and downstairs and across 
the streets and kneeling on the bare floors and getting 
up in a hurry, until reluctantly, but of necessity, they 
were obliged to relinquish the undertaking and the tire- 
less pastor was left to make the last of the two hundred 
calls alone, after which feat he returned home in the 
highest spirits and with no sense of his fatigue to laugh at 
his exhausted companions for deserting him." 

While Moody was thus engaged, the Young Men's 



84 Dwight L. Moody. 

Christian Association was languishing for want of 
proper quarters. Several schemes for getting a new 
building had been tried and failed. "The only way to 
get a building," said one member, "is to elect Mr. Moody 
president of the Association." Moody was forthwith 
elected and he at once began to plan for a beautiful 
structure, which was completed in 1867 and dedicated 
under the name of Farwell Hall. An utterance of 
Moody's in his address on the day of dedication is 
prophetic. He said : "When I see young men by thou- 
sands going in the way of death I feel like falling at the 
feet of Jesus and crying out to him with prayer and 
tears to come and save them and to help us to bring them 
to him. His answer to our prayers and his blessing on 
our work gives me faith to believe that a mighty in- 
fluence is to go out from us that shall extend through 
this county and every county in the State, through every 
State in the Union, and finally crossing the waters, it 
shall help to bring the whole world to God." In Moody 
himself a mighty influence did go out through the 
county and every county in the State, through every 
State in the Union, and finally crossing the waters, 
helped to bring the whole world to God. 

It was in 1866 that Moody made his first impression 
on the general public in the East. In that year he organ- 
ized and led the first Christian Convention in New Eng- 
land. This Convention, which met in Boston, was 
designed to unite Christians of every sort in earnest 
work for the good of all. Dr. Trumbull says that this 
was the evangelist's first visit to Boston since he had left it 
for Chicago as a young clerk in a shoe store. "Boston," 
says Dr. Trumbull, "is not easily led as a community, 
and it takes a leader to lead it, but Moody proved him- 



The War and After. 85 

self competent for the undertaking. He knew whom to 
reach and how to use them, and he reached and used 
them accordingly." Dr. Trumbull recalls the master 
minds which Moody led at the great Boston meeting. 
There was, for instance,. Professor Park, the theologian, 
who was then in his prime at Andover. "A Convention 
of this sort," says Dr. Trumbull, "was not what he would 
naturally have been drawn to; but Moody went out to 
Andover, and looked him up and won him as a helper." 
Dr. Trumbull says he first realized Moody's power on 
that occasion, as the two stood side by side on the Tre- 
mont Temple platform. "Professor Park was the em- 
bodiment of intellect, with ponderous frame and massive 
brain, fitted and accustomed to teach impressively; all 
recognized his power. Moody, on the other hand, as yet 
little known, was slighter in figure and frame than the 
theologian, and was a manifestation of feeling rather 
than intellect. Yet Moody dwarfed Park in moral power 
as a leader as they stood together. It was head against 
heart, or head compared with heart, and, as always in 
such a comparison, heart led. Professor Park realized 
this, as did the great assemblage. He evidently sought 
to fill the place that Moody his leader, assigned to him, 
and he did it. Boston never doubted Moody's power 
after that incident. 

Some of Moody's suggestions and counsels during this 
Convention were startlingly unconventional. "Some of 
you," he said, "refuse to take hold of this work because 
it is something new. A man near Boston, whom I talked 
with the other day, said he did not want to try any new 
ways in religion; he was already established. 'Estab- 
lished !' I should think so. I met him on the road the 
next day. His wagon was fast in the mud up to the 



86 Dwight L. Moody. 

axles; his horses tugged and tugged, but could not start 
it. I called out to him, 'Brother, I suppose that is what 
you call being established/ A good many of you are 
'established 1 in that way. Why, I've been away from 
here now almost ten years, and I come back to find some 
of you praying exactly the same prayers in prayer-meet- 
ing you were praying when I went away; not a new 
thought in all this time, although we've lived more than 
a century since then. I want to pry your wheels out of 
the mud." 

The incidents illustrating the manner of the man and 
his methods of work at this period would fill a volume. 
Dr. Trumbull remembers that he was in Chicago one 
Sunday shortly after the Boston Convention, and that he 
attended Moody's Sunday School. "As I sat by him in 
the desk," he says, "I noticed before me a placard so 
placed as to confront the speaker without being in sight 
of the audience. It was in substance, 'Don't talk about 
the Prodigal Son.' Recalling my own experience with 
visiting talkers in a mission school which I had super- 
intended, I had another illustration of Moody's wisdom 
and shrewdness in guarding his school against the unwis- 
dom of visiting speakers." 

Rev. David MacRae, in his "Americans at Home," 
speaking of the evangelist's unconventional methods, 
says : "Though earnest in his piety, and full of religious 
conversation, Moody had no patience with mere cant, 
and wanted everybody to prove his sincerity by his acts. 
At a meeting in behalf of a struggling charity, a wealthy 
layman, loud in his religious professions, offered up a 
prayer that the Lord would move the hearts of the people 
to contribute the sum required. Mr. Moody rose and 
said that all the charity wanted was the sum of two thou- 



The War and After. 87 

sand dollars ; and that he considered it absurd for a man 
with half a million to get up and ask the Lord to do any- 
thing in the matter, when he could himself, with a mere 
stroke of the pen, do all that was needed, and ten times 
more, and never feel the difference. " 

But while Moody could be thus severe when he felt 
that occasion required it, he was then, as in riper years, 
a man of tenderest feelings and of good-will towards 
his fellows. 

"In private intercourse," writes Dr. Clark of Albany, 
"I have always found Mr. Moody as full of generous 
courtesy towards others as he was of tender love for his 
Saviour. I never knew a man so free from selfishness 
or self-seeking as he. His friendship is as pure as crys- 
tal and his generous love flows out to all he can serve or 
benefit. A nobler soul was never formed by grace or 
spiritual culture. His very presence as a guest is a bless- 
ing in any house." 

"In his early evangelical efforts," says Mr. Nason in 
his "Lives and Labors of Eminent Divines," "Mr. Moody 
used to blame the ministers for the inactivity of the 
churches. At a certain meeting for the promotion of a 
revival, one good brother arose and criticised him se- 
verely for his uncharitableness, when Mr. Moody said 
with deep emotion, 'From my heart I thank'that brother, 
I deserve it. Will you pray for me, my brother?' All 
hearts were touched by his repentance, and his course and 
respect for the clergy ever since proves it to be sincere." 

Dr. Trumbull tells a story illustrating his tender and 
sensitive nature, and his disposition to reproach himself 
with any undue hastiness of word or manner. "One 
Monday morning," he writes, "as I boarded a train on 
the New York and New Haven Railroad in Connecticut, 



88 Dwight L. Moody. 

I met Moody, just back from one of his trips to England, 
and on his way to his Northfield home. I sat down by 
him, and spoke warmly of his work on the other side of 
the ocean and he wanted to talk of his doings on this 
side. His steamer had arrived in New York on Sunday. 
Mr. Moody had gone to the Astor House for the night. 
Speaking of his start for his home Monday morning, 
he said : 'Trying to get out my baggage so as to be in 
time for the eight o'clock train, I lost my patience with 
the porters, and I showed it to those men. I'm so 
ashamed of myself, Trumbull ! Some of those men may 
have known me, and, if so, I have dishonored my Master 
by showing a wrong spirit toward others.' ' "He was 
ever readier," adds Dr. Trumbull, "to blame himself for 
any weakness or haste than others were to blame him. 
Such intensity and positiveness of nature as Moody's 
would, of course, be liable to show itself in an emergency, 
in contrast with sluggish ones about him, and sometimes 
to their discomfort. He could never have done the 
work he did without that liability." 




VI, 

A MAN OF ONE BOOK. 

HE statement has been frequently made that 
when Moody began his mission school in 
the Chicago slums he could not read a chap- 
ter in the Bible "without skipping all the 
hard names." I am not sure that this is an exaggera- 
tion, but in any case there is no ground for the infer- 
ence that Moody's knowledge of the Scriptures at this 
time was painfully meager. The only reasonable infer- 
ence is that he was a poor speller. He had made remarka- 
able strides since his conversion, and he had not been in 
Chicago a month when it began tfo be whispered about 
among his associates that he was "Bible crazy." His 
methods of study were unquestionably crude — he stum- 
bled much and made many mistakes — but he hugged 
his Bible to 'his heart as his dearest treasure, and by 
some siort of process he soon came into possession of 
more of its wealth than many a well-equipped student 
has gained in a lifetime. His room-mates remember 
that the last thing he did at night was to take his Bible 
and read himself asleep — not a good method of acquir- 
ing knowledge certainly, though he seems to have gotten 
something more than slumber out of it. Other books 
were often recommended to him, and he would try to 
read them, but after worrying through a few pages he 
would go back to the one book that suited his heart. 
He was from the first a man of one book. 

In 1866 Harry Moorehouse, an English evangelist, 

(89) 



90 Dwight L. Moody. 

visited Chicago and held a meeting in Moody's Illinois 
Street Church. 

"Moody," said Mr. Moorehouse one day, "you are 
sailing on the wrong track. If you will change your 
course and learn to preach God's Word instead of your 
own you will make a greater power for good" — adding 
solemnly Paul's exhortation to Timothy: "I charge thee 
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge 
the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, 
preach the Word." 

Moody, always tremendously in earnesi to find the 
right way about everything, took kindly to the criticism, 
and insisted on knowing how he should proceed. 

"You need only one book for the study of the Bible," 
said Moorehouse. 

"Well, Moorehouse," replied Moody, "you must have 
studied a great many books to come bv your knowledge 
of it." 

"No," he answered; "since I began to be an evangelist 
I have been a man of one book. If a text of Scripture 
troubles me I ask another text to explain it and if this 
will not answer, I carry it straight to the Lord." 

Moody was deeply impressed by this interview and 
began to study the Scriptures with increased diligence. 
He formed the habit of rising at five o'clock — he often 
rose at four — for this purpose, and studied until break- 
fast. He read the Bible much on his knees. "Some of 
the hard words did indeed continue to puzzle him," says 
a writer, "but he soon found out that the longest words 
in the Bible, as everywhere else, are not apt to be of the 
most importance. There were very few practical saving 
doctrines in the Word of God through which he could 
not pray his way." While he did not eschew Bible helps 



A Man of One Book. 93 

as Mr. Moorehouse seems to have done, he would study 
nothing that would not help him to understand the Bible 
better. He carried his Bible with him wherever he went 
that he might devote his leisure moments to studying it. 

His Bible talks now became an engrossing topic of 
conversation among the church-going people of Chi- 
cago, and hundreds were drawn to his classes with the 
hope of learning his method of getting at the riches of 
the Word. His plan, as described by a recent writer, 
"was to take one word or doctrine and by the Con- 
cordance trace it through the various books of Scripture 
and thus examine it by the light of inspiration under all 
its meanings and revelations. "I remember," he often 
said, "I took up the word 'love' and turned to the Scrip- 
tures and got so that I felt that I loved everybody ; I got 
full of it; it ran out of my fingers." 

The Rev. Dr. Roy, a Chicago pastor, mentions a ser- 
mon which he heard Moody preach on the compassion 
of Christ, in which he seemed to be inspired, and under 
which the great audience was moved like a forest swept 
by the winds. When it was over Dr. Roy asked him 
how he prepared such a sermon. He said, "I got to 
thinking the other day about the compassion of Christ; 
so I took the Bible and began to read it over to find out 
what it said on the subject. I prayed over the texts as I 
went along until the thought of his infinite compassion 
overpowered me, and I could only lie on the floor of my 
study with my face in the open Bible and cry like a little 
child." 

He was never an exact student and even Drummond, 
who admired and loved him above all men, could but 
wish that he had broader views of the Bible; but what- 
ever may be said of his methods^ no serious fault can be 



94 Dwight L. Moody. 

found with the results so far as Moody himself was con- 
cerned. If he did not get at the contents of his orange 
scientifically it must be admitted that he did not allow 
much of the juice to drip through his fingers. He made 
much of the topical method of studying and this, of 
course, necessitated the use of a Concordance and a 
Subject-Index. Later he began to make free use of 
commentaries. 

"He has a large library at his home in Northfield," 
says Mr. Daniels, "which has been presented to him by 
admiring friends; but it is safe to say that there are not 
half a dozen books in the world, besides the books of the 
Old and New Testaments, of which he could give the 
names and the general outlines of their contents. Hence 
there is room in his head for God's Word, and with it he 
keeps himself continually full and running over." 

Mr. Daniels describes his method of Bible study as 
the method of a humming-bird studying a clover blos- 
som. "From the cells of sweetness down into which he 
has thrust his questions and his prayers, he brings up 
the honey which God has stored away; he revels in the 
profusion and preciousness of the promises like a robin 
in a tree full of ripe cherries. It is enjoyable just to see 
how heartily he enjoys the Word of God, and almost 
convincing to see with what absolute faith he clings to it 
for his own salvation and with what absolute assurance 
he urges others to do the same. To Mr. Moody the) 
Word of God is food, drink, lodging and clothes; he 
climbs by it towards heaven as a sailor climbs the rig- 
ging; it is an anchor to him; a gale to drive him; it is 
health, hope, happiness, eternal life." 

The chief secret of Moody's skill as a practical com- 
mentator was doubtless in his child-like faith in the Bible 



A Man of One Book. 95 

as the Word of God, and his dependence upon the Holy 
Spirit as its teacher. 

"Brother Moody," said a Chicago pastor, "is a firm 
believer in God's Word. It is a marvel to all of our 
ministers that while so many educated preachers within 
the evangelical churches treat the Bible as Homer or 
Plato, he practically writes over every verse, 'Thus saith 
the Lord.' Hence he has avoided -all those crotchets that 
weaken and deform the influence of many good preach- 
ers." "He believes in the Bible," says Dr. Wharton, 
"from 'back to back,' to use his own expression." 

He had wonderful skill in making the Bible real to his 
hearers. He was by no means an Oriental scholar, nor 
did he attempt to give a Bible picture in its Oriental 
colors, but he could give it as he had it in his own mind 
and he could make his congregation see it as he saw it. 
Dr. Trumbull says that he once heard him in telling the 
story of Daniel picture the old man as taking out his 
watch to note the time as noon approached when hie 
would pray as usual, lions or no lions. "In his earnest, 
graphic way he made that scene so real that no one 
thought of any anachronism on his part." 

"So again," says Dr. Trumbull, "as he told the story 
of Noah's warning before the flood, he pictured the 
scoffers of that day while the deluge was delayed." Dr. 
Trumbull quotes: 

"They would say to one another, 'not much sign of 
old Noah's rain-storm yet.' They would talk it over in 
the corner groceries of evenings." 

Then, as if in explanation he added: "I tell you, my 
friends, before the world got as bad as it was in Noah's 
day they must have had corner groceries." 

Everybody could understand that kind of talk. 



96 Dwight L. Moody. 

Moody told Dr. Trumbull of the surprise expressed 
by one man who found him in his study with his books 
open before him. 

"You don't mean, Moody, that you use commentaries, 
do you?" 

"Of course I do." 

"Then I shan't enjoy your sermons as I have, now that 
I know that." 

"Have you ever liked my sermons?" 

"Of course I have." 

"Then you have liked Moody's commentaries, have 
you?" 

On the night of the Chicago fire a friend met him 
hurrying with his wife and two children to find shelter. 

"Have you lost everything?" asked his friend. 

"Everything but my reputation and my Bible." he 
answered. 

This Bible he carried through his Great Britain cam- 
paign and laid it aside only when it was so full of refer- 
ences and notes that there was no room for more. It 
was replaced by one which was given to him by a Mr. 
Fay, of Dublin, in 1872. The latter book was described 
several years afterwards as being "full of lines and refer- 
ences made with ink of different colors, and the margins 
of almost every page are covered with different com- 
ments, annotations and the heads of sermons, all evincing 
close and critical searching for the honey of the sacred 
Word." 

"What would you know of your boy's letter," said 
Moody in one of his lectures on Bible study, "if you 
were to read the superscription on Monday, look at the 
signature on Friday and read a little of the middle of it 
three months afterwards? I get tired towards the end 



A Man of One Book. gf 

of July and I go away to the mountains and take the 
Bible with me. I read it through and feel as if I had 
never seen the book before. I have spent most of my 
life in reading and expounding it, yet it seems as if I had 
never seen it — it is so new, so rich, so varied; the truth 
flashes from a thousand unexpected and undiscovered 
points with a light above the brightness of the sun. That 
summer reading of the Bible is what I call tuning the 
instrument." 

Although Moody's views of the Bible were regarded 
by many scholars as exceedingly narrow, the most rad- 
ical of the modern critics could find no fault with the 
treatment which they received at his hands. For the 
higher criticism he had little, use, hut for many of the 
higher critics he exhibited the warmest regard. "We 
met at Yale," says Prof. George Adam Smith in the 
British Weekly, "where I discovered for the first time 
what a hold Moody had on the respectful attention, I 
think I can say admiration, of American students. He 
asked me to speak at the commencement exercises of 
the Northfield schools, and at the American students' 
conference there. I hesitated, pleading on how many 
points I differed from the Northfield teaching about 
Scripture. His answer was, 'Come, and say what you 
like,' and I felt at once the inspiration of his trust. At 
Northfield we had several conversations on O. T. crit- 
icism, some alone, some with others. 

"I shall never forget," continues Professor Smith, "his 
patience, the openness of his mind, his desire to -get at 
the real facts of criticism, or the shrewdness and humor 
with which he combated them. It was then that he 
finished one talk with the words, 'Look here, what's the 
use of telling the people there's two Isaiahs when most 
7 



98 Dwight L. Moody. 

of them don't know that there's one?' But most beau- 
tiful was his anxiety about the effect of criticism upon 
piety and preaching. He had on his heart not only 
some congregations which had suffered many things 
from criticism in the pulpit, but the divisions in the 
churches which were due to critical views. But he was 
very fair, and said that these divisions were probably not 
due only to the new opinions about Scripture, but to the 
temper in which they had been met by the other side. 
One of the discussions with several friends concluded 
with prayer from him, so earnest that I shall ever look 
back upon it as one of the greatest moments of my life." 

As for the higher criticism, Moody would say, "It is 
not the authorship of the book that matters, but the con- 
tents." 

Among the notes which may be found in Moody's 
Bible written in his own hand are the following : 

All God's children have two footmen, goodness and 
mercy, following on behind them. — Ps. xxiii. 6. 

Fat in body and lean in soul. — Ps. lxxvii. 31 ; cvi. 15. 

In all thy prayers, let thy heart be without words rather 
than thy words without heart. — Bunyan. 

Free grace is a harbor into which few ships run, except 
through stress of weather. Till the end of the creature 
is reached, men will not seek their Creator. — Ps. cvii. 19. 
— Spurgeon. 

As the Lord encircles his people like a mountain ram- 
part, he must be removed before they can be removed. — 
Ps. cxxv. 2. Hence, stand fast in the Lord. — Phil. iv. 1. 

THREE THINGS IN JOHN. 

The Gospel of John opens with Jesus Christ in the 
bosom of God, and closes with the sinner in the bosom of 
Jesus Christ. 



W 



A Man of One Book. 9$ 

John vi. 21 : "For him hath God the Father sealed" 
— that is, Christ. In the Mosaic ritual the lamb of the 
sacrifice was stamped and sealed by the priest as fit for 
sacrifice. So the Son of God was sealed. 

John xix. 1 5 : The Jews chose Barabbas, a murderer 
and robber. They have been murdered and robbed ever 
since. They chose Csesar as their king, and the Caesars 
have pillaged and robbed them ever since. 

THE NAME OF JESUS. 

Phil. ii. 9 : "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted 
him, and given him a name which is above every name." 
What the name of Jesus is : 

i. It is the only source of salvation. — Acts ii. 12. 

2. Faith in it gives life. — John xx. 31. 

3. Faith in it gives remission of sins. — Acts x. 43. 

4. Faith in it makes a man whole. — Acts iii. 6. 

5. Faith in it makes us sons of God. — John i. 12. 

6. Faith in it gives power in prayer. — John xiv. 13. 

7. Faith in it gives victory over devils. — Luke x. 17. 

8. It is the motive power of the Christian life. — 
2 Tim. ii. 19. 

9. It is the object of this world's hatred — Acts iv. 17. 

10. It is the test by which the world is condemned. — 
John iii. 18. 

11. It is the crowning glory of the redeemed in heaven. 
— Rev. iii. 12. 

"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole 
world?" Brownlow North said, "The devil gained the 
whole world, and lost his own soul. Who would change 
places with the devil ?" 

Christ substituted for me before God, is my righteous- 



ioo Dwight L. Moody. 

ness. Christ substituted for me in myself is my sanctifi- 
cation. 

We are most ashamed of Jesus when he has most need 
to be ashamed of us. 

Assurance is the result of the reception of evidence. 

God calls a thousand years as one day, and yet in 
I Sam. vii. 2, he speaks of "twenty years" as a "long 
time," showing how he feels our departure from him. 

Gen. xiii. 12, 13 : A great estate, but bad neighbors. So 
men take their families into a moral desert for the sake 
of a garden to play in. 

Mark ix. 20 : Like a bad tenant, the devil tried to do 
as much harm as he could when he got notice to quit. 

Josh. xiii. 33 : Self-denial is best for one's self, for 
then we oblige God to take care of us. 

Luke xv. 13: The farthest a Christian can get from 
heaven is the world. 

The religion of many Christians is like the Dingwall 
Free Church clock before its late repair. The beadle 
wound and timed it up on Sunday morning, but on other 
days it went from bad to worse. 

"He that hath begun a good work in you, will finish 
it."— Phil. i. 6. 

Mr. Spurgeon, leaning over the platform of a church 
where a work of grace was going on, heard a penitent in 
great distress below pray earnestly, "Lord, make a good 
job of me! Lord, make a good job of me!" 

Justification : a change of state ; a new standing before 
God. Repentance : a change of mind ; a new opinion 
about God. Regeneration : a change of nature, a new 
heart from God. Conversion : a change of life ; a new 
life from God. Adoption : a change of family; a new re- 
lationship towards God. Sanctification : a change of ser- 



A Man of One Book. ioi 

vice; separation unto God. Glorification: a change of 
place ; a new condition with God. 

The cream of earth's pleasure floats on top. He who 
thinks by a deeper draught to find yet more, fares worse. 
— Prov. xiv. 12. 

God makes a promise : Faith believes it : Hope antici- 
pates it: Patience quietly awaits it. — Heb. v. 12. 

Hope is a good anchor, but it needs something to grip. 
Anchor to the throne and then shorten the rope. — Heb. 
v. 19. 

The Master will only employ clean vessels to convey 
the water of life to thirsty souls. — 2 Tim. ii. 21. 

Ps. cxix. 136: Bendetti, a Franciscan monk, author of 
"Stabat Mater," one day was found weeping, and, when 
asked the reason of his tears, replied, "I weep because 
Love goes about unloved." 

Luke ix. 61 : The greatest step to heaven is out of our 
own doors. 

John iv. 14 : God does not want a dam, but a canal, 
to carry the Gospel. Dam up a spring and you get a 
frog-pond. 

THE SAINT'S PLACE. 

In Christ's hand — safety. 
At his feet — learning. 
At his side — fellowship. 
Between his shoulders — power. 
In his arms — rest. 

WEAK THINGS MADE STRONG, IN JUDGES. 

Left-handed, iii. 21; ox-goad, iii. 31; woman, iv. 4; 
nail, iv. 21; piece of a millstone, ix. 53; pitchers and 
trumpets, vii. 20; jawbone of an ass, xv. 15. 



102 Dwight L. Moody. 



IN RUTH BOAZ A TYPE OF CHRIST. 

Lord of the harvest. Supplier of wants. Redeemer 
of the inheritance. Man who gives rest. Near-kins- 
man. Bridegroom. 



DO THE KING S BUSINESS 

Heartily, Col. iii. 23. Diligently, Ezra vii. 23. Faith- 
fully, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 12. Speedily, Ezra vii. 21. 

ESTHER TEACHES 

The wonderful overruling providence of God. 
The love of God for his own people. 
The power of God to overturn the devices of the 
wicked. 

2 Tim. iv. 7: A child cried because the eggs were all 
broken when the chickens were hatched. But they had 
accomplished their work. 

James iv. 17: The sins of ignorance are most numer- 
ous; but the sins of knowledge are most dangerous. 

Isa. xl. 3 1 : I never could understand the order — mount 
up, run, walk — until I saw a man riding a bicycle. It is 
easy to mount, but to walk or go slowly takes a clever 
rider. So with a convert. 

The Scriptures naturally divide themselves into six por- 
tions : First : Genesis to Deuteronomy. The Pentateuch. 
Scene — The world and the wilderness. Second : Joshua 
to Esther. Historical. The land and the kingdom. 
Third : Job to Solomon's Song. Experimental. Fourth : 
Isaiah to Malachi. The Prophecies. Fifth : Matthew to 
John. The four evangelists. Christ on earth. Sixth: 
Acts to Revelation. Christ in heaven. The New Testa- 



A Man of One Book. 103 

ment further divides itself into four parts, correspond- 
ing to the four divisions of the Old Testament. First: 
Matthew to John. Corresponding with Genesis to 
Deuteronomy. Christ on earth. Second : Acts. Corre- 
sponding with Joshua to Esther. Christ in heaven. 
Third : The Epistles. Corresponding with Job to Solo- 
mon's Song. Fourth: The Revelation. Corresponding 
with the Prophecies. 

The believer's heart is God's storehouse. — Ps. iv. 7. 

You may talk about Jesus, but as soon as you get into 
the valley of the shadow of death you may talk to him. — 
Ps. xxiii. 4. 

It should be borne in mind, that as food naturally does 
not become vitalized until it has been brought in the 
lungs into communication with the atmospheric air, the 
air of heaven ; so the sacred Scriptures only become vital 
and quickening in the soul's experience, as they are real- 
ized in the presence of God, and held in communion with 
him. 

A short portion, attentively marked and prayed over 
becomes spiritual food. 

The key to the Old Testament is Christ. 

The Holy Spirit, speaking by St. Paul, tells Timothy 
that Holy Scripture was able to make wise unto salvation 
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Thereby intimat- 
ing that the study of the Old Testament will not profit 
unless it be with an eye to Christ. — Bishop Wordsworth. 

Origen (200 A. D. ) says: "St. Paul teaches us how 
to read the law of Moses. He gives us some specimens 
of a right interpretation of it, in order that by means 
of these, we may learn how to profit by it. For he would 
have us, who are Christians, differ from the disciples of 
the synagogue. They did not understand the law, and 



104 Dwight L, Moody. 

therefore rejected Christ. But we, who understand it 
spiritually, prove it to have been given for the instruc- 
tion of the church." 

Augustine (400 A. D.) says : 'The Old Testament has 
no true relish if Christ be not perceived in it." 

"God is light, and in him is no darkness." When 
God's presence comes, there is the separation from evil. — 
1 John i. 5-7. 

Creation glory. Man in God's image. Redemption 
love. God in man's image. — John i. 14; Phil. ii. 6-7. 

God rested when he had made man. The Divine Spirit 
could only find rest in another spirit. He could not rest 
in matter, in the sun, in vegetation, in physical life. God's 
rest is communion, and he can only commune with that 
which is like himself. — Zeph. iii. 17. 

God looked with pleasure upon his own works in 
creation, and said, "Very good." Sin came in, and, 
never till Christ came to accomplish the work of re- 
demption, had God any pleasure again in looking down 
on the earth; then he could say, "This is my beloved Son, 
in whom I am well pleased."— Matt. iii. 17. 

THE SEVEN "FORTY DAYS" OF SCRIPTURE. 

1. Forty days of sin and its judgment.— Gen. vii. 4, 
12, 17. 

2. Forty days of law and mercy. — Exodus xxiv. 18; 
xxxiv. 28. 

3. Forty days of faith and unbelief. — Deut. ix. 9; 
Num. xiii. 14. 

4. Forty days of human weakness and divine strength. 
■ — 1 Kings xix. 1-8. 

5. Forty days of repentance and forgiveness, — : 
Jonah iii, 



A Man of One Book. tog 

6. Forty days of conflict and victory. — Luke iv. 2. 

7. Forty days of redemption and glory. — Acts i. 3. 
This is an inscription on a tombstone at Shrewsbury, 

England : 

"For our Lord Jesus Christ's sake 
Do all the good you can 
To all the people you can, 
By all the means you can, 
In all the places you can, 
As long as ever you can." 




VII. 
HOW MOODY FOUND SANKEY. 

N 1870 an incident occurred which marks the 
beginning of one of the most important 
epochs in Moody's life. It was in Indian- 
apolis during the International Convention 
of the Young Men's Christian Association. Moody was 
holding an early morning prayer-meeting. There was 
no one to lead the singing and the meeting dragged. 
Suddenly a strange young man in the audience began 
a familiar hymn. It was an unusual voice, full of power 
and pathos, and in an instant the whole audience caught 
the spirit of the sweet singer and the meeting was saved. 
At the close Moody hurried up to the stranger and with- 
out waiting for an introduction asked, "Where do you 
live?" "In New Castle, Pennsylvania," answered the 
young man. "Are you married?" "Yes." "How many 
children have you?" "One." "I want you." "What 
for?" "To help me in my work at Chicago." "I can 
not leave my business." "You must. I have been look- 
ing for you for the last eight years. You must give up 
your business and come to Chicago with me." "I will 
think of it; I will pray over it; I will talk it over with 
my wife." 

The young man was Ira D. Sankey, whose name has 
been familiarly linked with that of Mr. Moody in the 
thought of the Christian world for the past tihirty years. 
Mr. Sankey was born in Edinburg, Pa., August 28, 
1840. His father was in good circumstances and en- 
joyed the esteem of the community. From early child- 

(106) 




IRA D. SANKEY AT 



How Moody Found Sankey. 109 

hood Ira was noted for his happy and confiding disposi- 
tion. His luminous face for which he is distinguished 
was a noticeable feature in early boyhood, and won for 
him the praise of being "the finest little fellow in the 
neighborhood." There was nothing very remarkable 
in his early history. The gift of song developed at a 
very tender age. It was altogether a gift; he never took 
lessons from any one, and when but a small boy he 
managed to make passable music on almost every sort 
of instrument that came in his way. An old Scotch 
farmer in the neighborhood exerted a marked influence 
on his early life. "The first recollection that I have of 
anything pertaining to religious life," said Mr. Sankey 
at a children's meeting in Dundee, Scotland, "was in 
connection with him. I remember he took me by the 
hand along with his own boys to the Sabbath School — 
that old place which I shall remember to my dying day. 
He was a plain man and I can see him standing up and 
praying for the children. Pie had a great warm heart 
and the children all loved him. It was years after that 
when I was converted, but my impressions were received 
when I was very young from that man." Young Sankey 
was converted in his fifteenth year and became a member 
of the Methodist Church. "This young Christian was 
richly endowed with a spirit for singing spiritual songs. 
His rich and beautiful voice gave a clear utterance to the 
emotions of his sympathetic, joyous nature, and was 
potent in carrying messages from his heart to the hearts 
of his hearers. It now became his delight to devote this 
precious gift to the service of his Lord, and it was his 
continual prayer that the Holy Spirit would bless the 
words sung to the conversion of those who flocked to 
the services to hear him. His father moved to New 



no Dwight L. Moody. 

Castle soon after the youth's conversion, and shortly 
afterwards young Sankey was appointed superintendent 
of the Sunday School in that place. This Sunday School 
under his care was blessed with a continual revival. His 
singing of the Gospel invitations, it is said, dates from 
this period. In addition to his work as superintendent, 
he had a class of seventy adults, and this weighty re- 
sponsibility made him a very earnest student of the 
Bible." 

In 1 86 1, he entered the army, where he served his 
term of enlistment not only as a soldier of his country 
but as a soldier of Christ. In camp he was always hold- 
ing prayer-meetings and doing personal work among 
the soldiers. On his return home he .became assistant 
to his father as collector of internal revenue, a position 
which he held with credit until his resignation nearly ten 
years later. By this time his musical talent soon opened 
up for him a wide field beyond his own community, and 
he was soon in constant demand at conventions and 
other great religious gatherings. 

Mr. Sankey did not at once accept Moody's invitation 
to join him in Chicago. There were many practical ob- 
jections arising from his business and family connec- 
tions. "I am a government officer," he said to Moody, 
"and I may find it difficult to get released." "There is 
a better government to serve than this," Moody an- 
swered. That very afternoon, however, says a writer in 
the Congregationalist, the first Moody and Sankey 
meeting was held, with no advertisement except singing 
as led by Mr. Moody's newly found friend. "It was an 
outdoor gathering. The masses were there. Mr. Moody 
brought out a box from a store to a favorably located 
street corner, mounted it, and there a short but fervent 



How Moody Found Sankey. hi 

meeting of song and prayer was held. At the close of 
this open prayer-meeting the two evangelists headed a 
procession for the Academy of Music, where the conven- 
tion meetings were held, singing as they marched with 
the crowd into the Academy of Music, the convention 
having adjourned the discussion of how to reach the 
masses and gone to supper. When the delegates got 
back to the Academy building they found it nearly half 
filled with the lapsed masses about whom they had been 
discussing. Mr. Moody cut short his second address, 
dismissed the audience and went ou*t with Sankey to get 
something to eat." Mr. Sankey was greatly impressed 
with these two meetings and said to Mr. Moody, "You 
are reaching the masses while other people are talking 
about it." At the close of the convention Mr. Sankey 
returned home and talked the question over with his 
family. He did not see his duty clearly at once, but Mr. 
Moody kept writing to him and finally persuaded him 
to go to Chicago and look the ground over. On his 
arrival, Mr. Sankey went first to Mr. Moody's home, 
reaching there just as family prayers were being held. 
"Almost before Mr. Moody introduced him to his 
family," says a writer, "he asked him to sing a hymn 
and thus contribute his part towards the informal ser- 
vice of praise. Then the two men went out into the 
streets of the city, visiting the sick and unfortunate. 
That clay must have been a notable one in the personal 
history of the two men who afterwards commanded the 
eager attention of great audiences on both sides of the 
sea. On this occasion, as two ordinary missionaries, 
they went about from house to house, singing and read- 
ing the Bible and speaking the word of cheer and hope 
wherever it was needed. During the week they helcj 



H2 Dwight L, Moody. 

meetings in the Illinois Street Church of which Mr. 
Moody was the head. On Sunday a great meeting was 
held in Farwell Hall, and as the organist happened to 
be absent, Mr. Sankey was compelled to sing without 
instrumental accompaniment. The effect of the service 
upon the people was so marked that Mr. Moody turned 
to the singer and said, 'You see I was right.' There were 
that night not less than one hundred inquirers." 

They worked together until the great fire, when, hav- 
ing lost all of their possessions, they were compelled to 
separate. Mr. Sankey returned to his family in Penn- 
sylvania, but three months later a telegram from Mr. 
Moody recalled him to the work of the new Tabernacle 
in Chicago. In the midst of the season of trial following 
the Chicago fire an incident occurred which was des- 
tined to influence Mr. Sankey's whole after life. This 
incident Mr. Sankey related in a meeting at Dundee, 
Scotland. "I want to speak a word," said he, "about 
singing, not only to the little folks, but to the grown 
people. During the winter after the great Chicago fire, 
when the place was 'built up with little frame houses for 
the people to stay in, a mother sent for me one day to 
come and see her little child who was one of our Sabbath 
School scholars. I remembered her very well, having 
seen her in the meetings very frequently, and was glad 
to go. She was lying in one of those poor little huts, 
everything having been burned in the fire. I ascertained 
that she was past all hope of recovery and that they were 
waiting for the little one to pass away. 'How is it with 
you to-day,' I asked. With a beautiful smile on her face, 
she said, Tt is all well with me to-day. I wish you would 
speak to my father and mother.' 'But,' said I, 'are you 
a Christian?' 'Yes.' 'When did you become one?' 'Do 



How Moody Found Sankey. 113 

you remember last Thursday in the Tabernacle when we 
had that little singing meeting and you sang "Jesus 
Loves Even Me?" ' 'Yes.' Tt was last Thursday I be- 
lieved on the Lord Jesus, and now I am going to be with 
him to-day.' That testimony from that little child in 
that neglected quarter of Chicago has done more to 
stimulate me and bring me to this country than all that 
the papers or any person may say. I remember the. joy 
I had in looking upon that beautiful face. She went up 
to Heaven and no doubt said she learned upon the earth 
that Jesus loved her from that little hymn. If you want 
to enjoy a blessing, go to the bedside of these dying ones 
and sing to them of Jesus, for they cannot enjoy these 
meetings as you do. You will get a great blessing to 
your souls." 

When Mr. Moody visited England in the spring of 
1872, Sankey was left behind to lead in the services of 
the Tabernacle. During the year he spent his leisure 
hours in gathering a number of spiritual hymns which 
he thought especially adapted for evangelistic services 
and arranging them into a musical scrap-book — the only 
book, by the way, except his Bible which he took with 
him on his subsequent voyage to Europe. 

When Moody went to England the following year, he 
took Mr. Sankey with him. When he determined to go 
to Scotland his singing companion became a problem, 
for Mr. Sankey did not sing according to Scotch tradi- 
tions. He sang very few Psalms at all and he did not 
sing these in the accepted versions. And then there was 
his organ, that "kist fu' o' whustles," which was an 
abomination to every Scotchman. Yet in spite of these 
obstacles the way was wonderfully opened to the hearts 
of the people, and wherever the two evangelists went the 
8 



ii4 Dwight L. Moody. 

crowds were so great that they were compelled to hold 
meetings in the open air — Moody being received, as 
some one has said, as a prophet of the Lord, and Sankey 
in spite of his organ, as an humble successor of the 
Psalmist himself. Now and then some of the elders of 
the churches in the Highlands could not refrain from 
expressing their dislike to Sankey's hymns. One of 
them said to his pastor, "I can't do with the hymns; 
they are all the time in my head and I can't get them 1 
out. The Psalms never trouble me that way." Said the 
pastor, who had already been won over to the singing 
of the evangelist, "Then I think you should keep to the 
hymns." 

Mrs. Barbour has thus described the impression made 
on his audience at Edinburgh: "Mr. Sankey sings with 
the conviction that souls are receiving Jesus between 
one note and the next. The stillness is over-awing. 
Some of the lines are more spoken than sung. The 
hymns are equally used for awakening — none more than 
'Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By.' And when you hear 
'The Ninety-and-Nine' sung, you know of a truth that 
down in this corner, up in that gallery, behind that pillar 
which hides the face of the listener, the man, Chris't 
Jesus, has been finding this and that and yonder lost one 
to place them in his fold. A certain class of hearers 
come to the service solely to hear Mr. Sankey, and the 
songs throw the Lord's net around them. We asked 
Mr. Sankey one day what he was to sing. He said, T 
will not know until I hear how Mr. Moody is closing.' 
Again, we were driving to the Cannongate Parish 
Church one winter night, and Mr. Sankey said to the 
young minister who had come for him, T am thinking 
of singing "I Am So Glad," to-night.' 'Oh,' said the 



How Moody Found Sankey. 115 

young man, 'please do rather sing "J esus of Nazareth." 
An old man told me to-day that he had been awakened 
by it the last night you were down. He said, "It just 
went through me like an electric shock." * * * 

"At a noonday prayer-meeting when the hymn, 'Sow- 
ing the Seed by the Daylight Fair,' was announced for 
singing, Mr. Sankey spoke, as follows: 'Before we sing 
this hymn I will tell you one reason why we should sing 
these hymns. It is because God is blessing them to 
many a poor wanderer who comes to this building nig^ht 
after night. Last week a man who had once occupied 
a high position in life came into this hall and sat down. 
While I was singing this hymn he took out his pass-book 
and wrote out these words: 

" Sowing the seed of a lingering pain, 
Sowing the seed of a maddened brain, 
Sowing the seed of a tarnished name, 
Sowing the seed of eternal shame ; 

Oh ! what shall the harvest be ? ' 

"Last night that man in the inquiry-room went on 
his knees, and asked God to break the chain that had 
dragged him down from such a high position to the 
lowest of the low. He said he had resolved when he 
went out of that praise-meeting that he would cease to 
indulge in the intoxicating cup; but before he reached 
home he went into a saloon and broke his resolution. 
We prayed for him last night. He is now praying that 
God may break his chain. I want you to pray that this 
brand may be plucked from the burning, and that God 
may use these Gospel hymns to turn the hearts of sinful 
men." 

One day while waiting for a train at Glasgow, Mr. 



n6 Dwight L. Moody. 

Sankey bought a copy of a penny religious newspaper 
to read on his journey. When he entered the car he 
threw it carelessly on the seat and gave no further heed 
to it until some distance on the way, when he turned to 
it for want of further occupation. "As Mr. Sankey 
read," says a writer in a New York journal, "he came 
upon some little verses tucked away at the bottom of the 
column and published anonymously. It is doubtful 
whether he would have noticed the verses at all had not 
the first two lines caught his eye, but they had strength 
in them, and so he read on: 

' ' ' There were ninety and nine that safely lay 
In the shelter of the fold.' 

"So it began, and Mr. Sankey followed down the lines, 
while the train for Edinburgh rushed on at sixty miles 
an hour. 

" 'Hurrah!' cried Mr. Sankey, bringing his hand down 
on his knee in characteristic enthusiasm. 'I've found 
the hymn I've been looking for for years.' 

" 'Yes,' said Mr. Moody, 'what is it?' 

" 'It's about a sheep.' 

" 'A sheep?' 

" 'Yes, a sheep which was lost on the mountains and 
carried home by the shepherd.' 

" 'H'm, h'm,' said Mr. Moody, not paying much at- 
tention; 'read it.' 

"Mr. Sankey did read it, and he put feeling into his 
words, for the beauty of the verses impressed him; but 
when he looked up, he saw that Mr. Moody had heard 
nothing of the reading, being lost in his letters. 

" 'All right,' said Mr. Sankey to himself, 'he'll hear 
that hymn later on;' and cutting out the verses from the 
paper, he put them away carefully for future use. 



How Moody Found Sankey. it? 

"A few days after this the evangelists held a revival 
meeting in Edinburgh at the Free Assembly Hall. Mr. 
Moody spoke most eloquently on the Good Shepherd, 
and then followed an address by Dr. Horatius Bonar, 
the author of 

" ' I heard the voice of Jesus say, 
Come unto me, and rest.' 

"As Dr. Bonar finished, there came over the meeting 
that stillness which indicates deep spiritual feeling. 
Bending down from his pulpit towards Mr. Sankey, who 
sat at his right by the little melodeon, Mr. Moody said: 

' 'Mr. Sankey, have you anything to sing on this sub- 
ject as a solo?' 

"Mr. Sankey hesitated. He could think of nothing di- 
rectly on the subject except the Twenty-third Psalm, 
which had already been sung three times that day by the 
congregation. They must have something else. Like 
a flash it came to him, 'Sing the song you found on the 
train.' But his second thought was, 'How can I sing a 
hymn without a tune?' Meanwhile the audience was 
waiting in silence. 'Sing the hymn you found on the 
train,' came the thought again, this time imperatively. 
Mr. Sankey opened his little scrap-book of solos, found 
the newspaper slip, laid it before him on the rack of the 
melodeon, and then struck a full chord and began to 
sing. What notes he sang he did not know, nor what 
chords he played; he took no heed of harmony, nor of 
the laws of musical progression. Somehow he got 
through the first stanza, and then he paused and played 
some chords on the melodeon, waiting to begin the 
second stanza. The thought came to him, 'Can I sing 
the second stanza as I did the first; can I remember the 



n8 D wight L. Moody. 

notes?' and he concentrated his mind once more for the 
effort, and began to sing again. And so he went through 
the five stanzas, and the audience sat as still as death 
until he finished with the last glad shout: 

" ' And the angels echoed around the throne, 
Rejoice ! For the Iyord brings back his own.' 

"When it was all over, Mr. Moody came down from 
the pulpit, and, resting a hand on Mr. Sankey's shoulder, 
looked with wonder at the newspaper clipping. 

" 'My dear friend,' he said, 'where did you get that 
song; I never heard anything like it.' 

c 'That,' said Mr. Sankey, 'is the hymn I read on the 
train — the one you didn't hear.' 

"And thus the tune of the 'Ninety-and-Nine' was born 
into the world, a tune which has gone round the world. 
As it was sung that day in Edinburgh by inspiration, 
so it has been written down in the hymn-books and so 
it has been sung in many languages, and no note 
or chord of it has been changed, nor would Mr. Sankey 
consent to the slightest change, not to please all the 
musical critics in the world." 







VIII. 
THRUST FORTH. 

N 1867 Mrs. Moody was in poor health and 
upon the advice of her physician her hus- 
band resolved to take her to England. This 
decision was reached like most of Moody's 
decisions, after much prayer and without consulting his 
purse. When the arrangements were being made for 
the trip there was no money in sight, but this seems to 
have caused him no uneasiness. It came at the last mo- 
ment from a few friends who had learned of his inten- 
tions. 

Dr. Trumbull, writing in the Sunday School Times of 
Moody's first public appearance before a London .audi- 
ence, says: 

''Having before this met Fountain J. Hartley, an hon- 
orary secretary of the London Sunday School Union, 
during his visit to America, Mr. Moody was invited to 
speak at the anniversary of that society, or possibly of 
the Ragged School Union, in Exeter Hall. It is cus- 
tomary in England for a speaker on such an occasion 
to be connected with a formal resolution, as its mover 
or seconder, in order to give him a right to the floor. 
Therefore Mr. Moody was assigned to move a vote of 
thanks to the chairman of the evening, who in this in- 
stance was the well-known Earl of Shaftesbury. 

"Towards the close of the meeting the chairman 
yielded his place to the vice-chairman, in order that such 
a resolution could be offered. The vice-chairman an- 
nounced that they were glad to welcome their "Amer- 

(119) 



i2d Dwight L. Moody. 

ican cousin, the Rev. Mr. Moody, of Chicago," who 
would now "move a vote of thanks to the noble Earl" 
who had presided on this occasion. The whole thing 
was quite out of Mr. Moody's way of doing things. Had 
he attempted, at once, to conform to English ways, he 
might, or he might not, have succeeded in doing it grace- 
fully; but he was too much of a man to try to be other 
than himself, and he brushed aside all forms, and showed 
himself as he was. 

"With refreshing frankness, and an utter disregard 
of conventionalities and mere compliments, Mr. Moody 
burst upon the audience with the bold announcement: 
The chairman has made two mistakes. To begin with, 
I'm not the "Reverend" Mr. Moody at all. I'm plain 
Dwight L. Moody, a Sunday School worker. Arid then 
I'm not your "American cousin;" by the grace of God, 
I'm your brother, who is interested, with you, in our 
Father's work for his children. 

" 'And now about this vote of thanks to "the noble 
Earl" for being our chairman this evening. I don't see 
why we should thank him, any more than he should 
thank us. When at one time they offered to thank our 
Mr. Lincoln for presiding over a meeting in Illinois, he 
stopped it. He said he'd tried to do his duty, and they'd 
tried to do theirs. He thought it was about an even 
thing all 'round.' 

"That opening," says Dr. Trumbull, "fairly took the 
breath away from Moody's hearers. Such a talk could 
not be gauged by any known standard; its novelty was 
refreshing. Mr. Moody carried his English hearers from 
that beginning to his latest labors. Indeed, that first 
talk of Moody's secured for him an invitation to visit 
England again as a leader in evangelistic labors." 




DWIGHT L. MOODY AT 



Thrust Forth. 123 

While in London, Moody preached nearly a hundred 
sermons and succeeded in organizing a noonday prayer- 
meeting, but he does not seem to have made much im- 
pression upon the community. However, Moody him- 
self received an impression which remained with him to 
the end of his life. It came in a single sentence. "Mr. 
Moody," said Mr. Varley, the British evangelist, to him 
one day, "it remains for the world to see what the Lord 
can do with a man wholly consecrated to Christ." These 
words struck to the very bottom of Moody's heart, and 
probably had more to do with his return to England than 
any other means. "Those were the words of the Lord," 
he said to Mr. Varley several years afterwards, "through 
your lips to my soul." 

On returning to America Moody entered with new 
zeal upon his work and succeeded in infusing fresh life 
into his church and Sabbath School. Not content with 
the work which his own church gave him to do he began 
to take the lead in almost every religious enterprise that 
came to his hand. He was president and at that time 
the very soul of the Young Men's Christian Association 
of Chicago. He conducted the great Sunday School 
campaign which put Illinois in the front rank of Sunday 
School States. With all these labors there still remained 
so much unexpended energy that he felt compelled to 
run out now and then over the State to hold great open- 
air revival meetings. 

*Dr. Clark relates an incident which illustrates the 
character of Moody's work as an evangelist at this 
period. 

"He had been twice invited to come and hold meet- 

* " Work of God in Great Britain." By Dr. Rufus Clark. New York : Harper & 
Brothers. 



124 Dwight L. Moody. 

ings in certain counties in the State, but pressure of 
duties had compelled him to decline. Having in sum- 
mer a leisure week he sent word to one of the pastors 
that he was coming, and took the next train. When he 
arrived the pastor said to him 'I am sorry you have come. 
When we wrote you. all seemed favorable for a revival; 
now all promise is gone.' He went to see another pas- 
tor who gave him practically the same answer. Moody 
was not long in deciding what to do. He persuaded a 
few persons to go with him to the corner of a public 
square. Finding a dry-goods box he tumbled it over 
and mounting upon it began to speak. At first few 
stopped to listen; others came until a large crowd of 
eager listeners had gathered around him. Many 
seemed deeply moved while some wept. At the close 
he invited all to attend another meeting to be held in 
a church near by. Such a multitude flocked to the 
church that it could not hold them. Other meetings 
followed with increased interest. God poured out his 
Spirit and a blessed revival followed." 

Through all these labors there remained the impres- 
sion which had come to him on his visit to England that 
he ought to return and "win," as he expressed it, "ten 
thousand souls for Christ." The words of Varley still 
lay on his heart. The great Chicago fire, strange as it 
may seem, only served to deepen the impression. This 
fire occurred on the evening of October 8, 1871, while 
Moody was holding service at Farwell Hall. That was 
the night, he often said afterwards, when he made the 
greatest mistake of his life. He had been preaching a 
series of sermons on the Life of Christ. He had taken 
our Lord from the cradle and followed him up to the 
judgment hall. That night he finished a sermon on 



Thrust Forth. 125 

"What shall I do with Jesus," and then said to the audi- 
ence: "Now I want you to take the question home with 
you and think it over and next Sunday I want you to 
come back and tell me what you are going to do with 
him." 

"What a mistake!" he said in a sermon which he 
preached on the twenty-second anniversary of the great 
fire. "It seems now as if Satan was in my mind when I 
said this. Since then I have never dared give an audi- 
ence a week to think of their salvation. If they were lost 
they might rise up in judgment against me. 'Now is 
the accepted time.' I remember Mr. Sankey singing 
and how his voice rang when he came to that pleading 
verse : 

" ' To-day the Saviour calls, 
For refuge fly ! 
The storm of Justice falls, 
And death is nigh ! ' 

"After the meeting we went home. I remember going 
down LaSalle street with a young man who saw the 
glare of flames. I said to the young man, 'This means 
ruin to Chicago.' About one o'clock Farwell Hall was 
burned; soon the church in which I had preached went 
down and everything was scattered. I have never seen 
that congregation since. I have had hard work to keep 
back the tears to-day. I have looked over this audience 
and not a single one is here that I preached to that night. 
One lesson I learned that night which I have never for- 
gotten — when I preach to press Christ upon the people 
then and there, and try to bring them to a decision on the 
spot. I would rather have that right hand cut off than 
give an audience a week to decide what to do with 
Jesus." 



126 Dwight L. Moody. 

Moody's home, as well as his church, stood in the 
pathway of the flames and when it was all over he had 
nothing left. After doing what he could for the imme- 
diate relief of the sufferers in his neighborhood he made 
a hurried trip to Philadelphia, New York and Washing- 
ton, where he soon collected sufficient money to build 
a tabernacle. This tabernacle — a rude structure a hun- 
dred and nine feet by seventy-five — was completed 
within eight weeks after the fire, the workmen being 
aided by a multitude of poor women and children, who 
frequently toiled far into the night. At the dedication 
more than a thousand children were present. For 
months the tabernacle served as a home for Moody and 
his family as well as a distributing point for much of the 
charity that the world poured into the lap of the stricken 
city. Religious services were constantly going on in 
one part of the building, while in other rooms crowds 
of good women were sewing, mending, arranging, and 
distributing clothes and other forms of material help. 
The Sunday program left little to be desired except rest 
for the pastor. "Lord's Supper every Sunday at nine 
in the morning, preaching by Mr. Moody at half-past 
ten, at the close of which he waited at the door to greet 
the people as they passed out; then dinner in the class 
room at which a number of Sunday School teachers were 
present to talk over the work of the day. Immediately 
after dinner a teachers' meeting for the study of the les- 
son; at three o'clock Sunday School, with Mr. Moody 
for superintendent, following it a teachers' prayer-meet- 
ing, also led by him, then supper in the class room, then 
the Yoke-fellows' prayer-meeting; preaching at half-past 
seven, after which Mr. Moody held a meeting for in- 
quirers which sometimes lasted far into the night." 



Thrust Forth. 127 

Through this trying period Moody worked with the 
intensity of a man trying to appease a ravenous appetite. 
As a matter of fact it was the rush of a hungry man. We 
have the story of this restless experience, and of its won-, 
derful culmination, from his own lips. 

"I myself can go back almost twelve years," he says in 
one of his sermons, "and remember two holy women who 
used to come to my meetings. It was delightful to see 
them there. When I began to preach I could tell by the 
expression of their faces that they were praying for me. 
At the close of the Sabbath meeting they said, 'We have 
been praying for you.' I said, 'Why don't you pray for 
the people?' They answered, 'You need the power.' 
T need the power !' I said to myself ; Why, I thought I 
had the power. I had a large Sabbath School, and the 
largest congregation in Chicago. There were some con- 
versions at the time. I was, in a sense, satisfied. But 
right along these two godly women kept praying for 
me, and their earnest talk about 'anointing for special 
service' set me thinking. I asked them to come and talk 
with me, and we got down on our knees. They poured 
out their hearts that I might receive an anointing from 
the Holy Spirit, and there came a great hunger into my 
soul. I did not know what it was. I began to cry as I 
never did before. The hunger increased. I really felt 
that I did not want to live longer if I could not have this 
power for service. Then came the Chicago fire. I was 
burnt out of house and home at two o'clock in the 
morning. This did not so much affect me; my heart 
was full of yearning for divine power. I was to go on 
a special mission to raise funds for the homeless, but 
my heart was not in the work of begging. I was crying 
all the time that God would fill me with his Spirit. Well, 



1 28 D wight L. Moody. 

one clay, in the city of New York — oh, what a day — I 
cannot describe it; I seldom refer to it; it is almost too 
sacred an experience to name. Paul had an experience 
of which he never spoke for fourteen years. I can only 
say, God then revealed himslf to me, and I had such an 
experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his 
hand. I went to preaching again. I did not present any 
new truths. The sermons were not different, and yet 
hundreds were converted. I would not now 'be placed 
back where I was before that blessed experience if you 
would give me all Glasgow — it would be as the small 
dust of the balance." 

Dr. Clark tells of another extraordinary experience 
which he had not long afterwards. One day he called 
upon a friend and as he began to speak he burst into 
tears. He said that he hardly knew what the Lord in- 
tended to do with him. He seemed to be "taking him 
all to pieces," as he expressed it, and showing him his 
unworthin^ss and feebleness. He could not describe, or 
even understand, the strange emotions that had taken 
possession of him. A few clays afterwards, he made an 
appointment with four or five friends to hold a season 
of prayer. One of the number remembers that on enter- 
ing the room he found the little party all kneeling, and 
all in tears, pouring out their supplications in great 
agony of spirit, not to be denied the guidance and 
strength and power they sought. They were begging 
a full baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that God would 
use them for his own glory, and for the salvation of per- 
ishing souls. "We have reason to believe," says Dr. 
Clark, that at that time Mr. Moody received a fresh and 
full baptism of the Spirit, and that it was the divine 
preparation of his soul for the great work upon which all 






Thrust Forth. 129 

Christianity looks to-day with wonder, and with thanks- 
giving to God." 

In 1872 he went to England and connected himself 
with Philip Phillips, the singing evangelist, who was 
then making a tour of Great Britain. The object of this 
trip, as he told George Adam Smith, was to study the 
situation. He went to hear the English preachers and 
to watch their effects. He made himself familiar with 
the tendencies of the popular religion and with the wants 
of the people outside of the Church. "In such tactics," 
says George Adam Smith, "there is something apostolic, 
something that resembles Paul himself in this unknown 
foreigner, once an humble seller of shoes, patiently lay- 
ing his plans through the year for the invasion of the 
whole nation of whom half a dozen individuals have 
never heard of him." 

In June of the following year, accompanied by Mr. 
Sankey, he returned to England on his great mission. 




IX. 

MOODY AND SANKEY STIR GREAT BRITAIN. 

OWARDS the end of the summer of 1873," 
says George Adam Smith in his "Life of 
Henry Drummond,"* "two Americans 
landed at Liverpool for the purpose of hold- 
ing religious services in the large cities of England. To 
quote their bills, one of them preached and the other 
sang the Gospel. The singer was the younger of the 
two, thirty-four years of age, with a strong baritone 
voice, and he sang sitting at an American organ, upon 
which he accompanied himself. The one who preached 
was about thirty-seven, short, thickset, with a heavy 
jaw and strong American accent. Their names were 
American, with the usual middle initial — Dwight L. 
Moody, the preacher, and Ira D. Sankey, the singer." 

On his visit to England in 1867, Moody had received 
an invitation from the Rev. Mr. Pennefather, a London 
clergyman of the Established Church, and from Mr. 
Cuthbert Bainbridge, a Wesleyan layman of New Castle, 
to come and labor with them. When he arrived at 
Queenstown on his way to Liverpool he received a letter 
stating that both of these gentlemen were dead. "Thus 
we were left," says Mr. Sankey, "without an invitation 
and without friends." At Liverpool they stopped over 
night at a hotel, where Moody declared to Sankey that 
as the doors seemed to be closed to them in England, 
he would not attempt to open any. If the Lord opened 

* " The Life of Henry Drummond." By George Adam Smith. Copyright by 
Doubieday & McClure Co., New York. 

U30) 



Moody and Sankey Stir Great Britain. 133 

the door, they would go in ; otherwise they would return 
to America. "That night," says Mr. Sankey, "Moody 
found an unopened letter among his papers. It had been 
received before we sailed, and it proved to be an invita- 
tion to the effect that if we ever came to Europe we would 
be gladly welcomed at York, to speak at the Young 
Men's Christian Association there. Mr. Moody said at 
once, 'We will go to York.' The next morning he sent 
a telegram to Mr. Bennett, the secretary of the Associa- 
tion, informing him that he was ready to begin work. 
The secretary replied that religion was at a low ebb in 
York, and that it would require at least a month to get 
ready for a revival — the telegram closing by asking 
Moody when he might be expected. To this telegram 
Moody immediately replied, T will be in York to- 
night.' " 

And to York he went. The meetings for the first day 
or two were very small. On the third day the building 
began to fill, and by the end of the week no building in 
the city would hold all the people who desired to attend. 
The crowd seemed to be drawn together chiefly by cu- 
riosity, however, and little was accomplished. 

From York they went to Sunderland, where they were 
received coldly, it having gone abroad that they were 
adventurers from the States who had crossed the water 
for English gold. Moody's blunt manner did not help 
matters, and his ignorance of red tape, upon which the 
English place so high a value, was often very shocking. 
Finding little sympathy here, they went on to Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne, where the way was opened for them by 
a friendly editorial in a Newcastle paper from the pen of 
the member of Parliament for that section. "We have 
not done much work in York and Sunderland," said 



134 D wight L: Moody. 

Moody on his arrival, "because the ministers opposed us; 
but we are going to stay in Newcastle until we make an 
impression and live down the prejudices of the good 
people who do not understand us." And he was as good 
as his word. After a few days the tide began to turn in 
his favor and he took courage. "We are on the eve of 
a great revival," he said,, "which may cover Great 
Britain and perhaps make itself felt in America. And 
why," he continued, "may not the fire burn as long as I 
live? When this revival spirit dies, may I die with it!" 
In a little while the whole community became aroused; 
hundreds were converted, Bibles were circulated, Sunday 
Schools overflowed, and, as some one has said, "a new 
style of religious life was introduced into Northumber- 
land." 

The next meeting was in Edinburgh. It was a daring 
venture for a man of Moody's meager education. "What 
can such a man as I do," said he, "up there among those 
great Scotch divines ?" And his fears were not ground- 
less. Many of the best people of Edinburgh were sorely 
perplexed at the methods he employed, and it was dis- 
tressing to them to have a man praise God on an organ, 
or sing such simple heart-songs as Mr. Sankey sang, in 
place of the grand old Psalms that were sung by the 
sainted Covenanters. But these difficulties were soon 
overcome and forgotten amid the scenes of one of the 
greatest revivals that Scotland ever witnessed. 

The Free Church Assembly Hall, the largest building 
in Edinburgh, and the Established Church Assembly 
Hall, were crowded every evening. The daily press re- 
ported the progress of the revival, and multitudes came 
from distant towns to share its blessings. The whole 
city talked pf nothing else. At one of the meetings six 



Moody and Sankey Stir Great Britain. 135 

hundred persons accepted Christ. The London press 
began to take notice of the movement, and the work of 
the revivalists found a place in the cable dispatches. 
Great yearnings for a better life took possession of the 
hearts of multitudes, and in thousands of homes the 
deepest concern was felt by parents for their children, 
and by masters and mistresses for their servants. It is 
said that there was scarcely a Christian household in 
Edinburgh in which there was not one or more members 
converted during this period. The leading ministers of 
all denominations gave their hearty support to the move- 
ment. Dr. Horatius Bonar says that it was not only in 
the regions around the Free Assembly Hall, or in other 
choice localities in Edinburgh and Leith, "but also among 
the poor and neglected population of Cannongate and 
Cowgate that the revival tide was observed to be rising. 
God seemed to bring to the place all classes and condi- 
tions of men." A merchant, whose place of business was 
in the neighborhood where drunken men and women fre- 
quently passed the door, declared that the influence of 
the revival was plainly apparent among the lower 
classes; for since it began he had seen very few persons 
pass his place in a state of intoxication. A confectioner, 
whose trade consisted chiefly in providing ball suppers, 
was disgusted with the revival; it almost spoiled his 
business. 

The meetings continued until the 21st of January. In 
May the evangelists returned for a three days' meeting, 
at the end of which ten thousand people followed them 
to Queen's Park to bid them farewell. "It was a solemn 
time," says an eye-witness. "There was a mass of men 
and women and children, unsaved and needing to hear 
words of salvation, and they heard them. It was an im- 



136 Dwight L. Moody. 

pressive scene to see masses of human beings hanging or 
sitting on the shelves and on the clefts of the rocks be- 
hind the preacher." When Moody was through with his 
farewell sermon, the great crowd pressed around him, 
and he was compelled to flee from them to the carriage 
awaiting him. Mr. Sankey had equal difficulty in getting 
away from the thousands that wished to shake his hand. 
"There never was," says the writer whom I have just 
quoted, "such an enormous meeting in Edinburgh, or 
anywhere else, so far as we have ever heard." 

Moody has left us an interesting anecdote relating to 
the Edinburgh meeting. When he was at the inquiry 
meeting in Assembly Hall, one of the ushers came 
around and said, "Mr. Moody, I'd like to put that man 
out; he's one of the greatest infidels in Edinburgh." "He 
had been the chairman of an infidel club for years. I 
went around to where he was and sat down by him. 
'How is it with you, my friend?' I asked, and then he 
laughed and said, 'You say God answers prayer; I tell 
you he doesn't. I don't believe in a God. Try it on me.' 
'Will you get down with me and pray?' I asked him; 
but he wouldn't. So I got down on my knees be- 
fore him and prayed. Next night he was there again. 
I prayed and quite a number of others prayed for 
him. A few months after that, away up in the 
North of Scotland, at Wick, I was preaching in the 
open air, and while I stood there I saw the infidel stand- 
ing on the outskirts of the crowd. I went up to 
him at the close of the meeting and said : 'How is it 
with you, my friend?' He laughed and said, T told 
you praying is all false; God hasn't answered your 
prayers; go and talk to these deluded people.' He had 
just the same spirit as before, but I relied on faith. 



Moody and Sankey Stir Great Britain. 137 

Shortly after I got a letter from a barrister — a Chris- 
tian. He was preaching one night in Edinburgh, when 
this infidel went up to him and said : 'I want you to 
pray for me; I am troubled.' The barrister asked, 
'What is the trouble ?' and he replied : T don't know 
what's the matter, but I don't have any peace, and I want 
you to pray for me.' Next, day he went around to the 
lawyer's office and he said that he had found Christ. 

"This man is now doing good work, and I heard that 
out of thirty inquirers there, ten or twelve of his old as- 
sociates and friends were among them. So, if you have 
God with you, and you go to work for him, and you meet 
infidels and skeptics, just bear in mind that you can 
win them through faith. When Christ saw the faith of 
those four men, he said to the man: 'Thy sins are for- 
given thee.' My friends, if you have faith, all things are 
possible." 

It was in Edinburgh that Moody met and won Henry 
Drummond, just then on the threshold of manhood. 
"Drummond," says George Adam Smith in the volume 
quoted at the beginning of this chapter, "was curiously 
different from the man with whom he was to become 
such an intimate colleague — not in theology nor in zeal 
to win his fellow-men to Christ, but in those other things 
that, by the bitter irony of our lives, separate us from each 
other far more cruelly than even the divisions in religion. 
His accent, his style, his tastes, were at the other pole 
from that of the evangelist. His nature was quiet and 
reserved — an excited preacher was always a wonder to 
him. He had a perilous sense of humor, and I do not 
think that he ever really cared for public meetings, nor 
did the social possibilities of the movement attract him; 
at this time he had not the civic conscience. But from 



138 D wight L. .Moody. 

the first he felt Mr. Moody's sincerity, and the practical 
worth of his new methods." On his side, Moody was 
feeling the need of a young man to take charge of 
the meetings for young men, and as Professor Smith 
says, it is a tribute to his insight that he chose 
one whose style and tastes were so different from his 
own. At first, Drummond was employed like other stu- 
dents, in the inquiry-room. Then he began to address 
meetings. The news of the great work of the American 
evangelists had spread abroad and kindled revival fires 
throughout Great Britain, and from every quarter there 
came requests for help. In meeting this demand. Moody 
found no one so efficient as young Drummond. "I sup- 
pose," writes Drummond, in a letter which Professor 
Smith has published in his biography — "I suppose I am 
fairly engaged now to follow Moody all winter, and take 
his young men's meetings. I cannot help thinking more 
and more every day that this is the work God has planned 
for me this session. Why I should have such a tremen- 
dous privilege is the only mystery to me. I don't be- 
lieve there has ever been such an opportunity for work 
in the history of the church." 

Drummond's admiration for Moody was boundless. 
He declared him to be the "greatest human he had ever 
met." "In largeness of heart, in breadth of views, in 
peacefulness and self-obliteration, in sheer goodness and 
love, none can stand beside him." Dr. Trumbull relates 
an incident which gives some pleasant glimpses of the 
inner spirit of both Moody and Drummond, and of the 
regard which each had for the other. 

"Moody asked me one evening," he says, "to take an 
early drive with him on the following morning, and then 
come back to breakfast with Drummond. We started 



Moody and Sankey Stir Great Britain. 139 

in an open buggy before six o'clock. Moody wanted me 
to see one of his favorite drives. It was along a wooded 
road. In a shaded dell we stopped to hear the birds sing 
and the brook murmur in the forest on the right. Moody 
spoke softly and delightedly: 'Isn't that nice? I love to 
come out here!' His glowing face showed his joy. 

"As we stopped there, for a few minutes, Moody spoke 
of Drummond with admiration and affection. He told 
of Drummond's kind services as a volunteer secretary 
during the Moody and Sankey first campaign in Scot- 
land, and of the lovely spirit Drummond showed in it 
all. He said : Td read the letters that came to me from 
different places, asking me to have a series of meetings 
in their town, and then I'd tell Drummond what to write. 
One letter was a sort of demand on me to come there at 
a certain time. I was sort of indignant, and I said, "Tell 
that man I've got too much to do to come to his place 
at any time." Drummond just said quietly, "Shall I 
tell him just that, Moody?" What a gentle, loving re- 
buke to me that was ! "No, Drummond," I said, "you 
needn't say that. Answer him just as you think best. 
I'll leave it to you." ' 

"Then, as he took up the reins to start homeward, 
Moody said tenderly: T tell you, Trumbull, Drummond 
is the sweetest-spirited Christian I ever knew.' What 
a testimony that was from such a man to such a man. 

"At noon that day, after a breakfast with Drummond 
at Moody's home, and after the forenoon meeting in the 
hall, where Moody had given expression, in his positive 
way, to what had appeared to Drummond a somewhat 
narrow view of the Bible, I was talking with the latter, 
and he talked of Moody. 'Dear Moody!' he said. 1 
wish he had a somewhat broader view of the Bible, in 



140 Dwight L. MoodV. 

order to get its full enjoyment. But I tell you what it 
is, Trumbull — Moody is the sweetest-spirited Christian 
I ever knew.' What a testimony that was from such a 
man to such a man !.' 

From Edinburgh Moody and Sankey went to Glas- 
gow, where at one meeting more than a thousand re- 
mained for prayer. At another a hundred young men 
stood up and accepted Christ. At one of the meetings 
for children, the boys, who were "delighted with the 
simplicity of the preaching and the sweetness of the 
songs, climbed up the stairs and filled the pulpit, and 
hung as bees in quest of the honey around the speaker." 
At one time the crowd, numbering about twenty thou- 
sand, filled the streets for a great distance around the 
building. 

The Rev. Elias Nason was in Glasgow a year after 
the departure of the evangelists when ample time had 
elapsed for measuring the magnitude of the work that 
had been done. He found that the noonday prayer- 
meetings were still sustained, and at one of these 
a Lutheran pastor from the south of Germany testified 
that a year before he had been in Glasgow to attend the 
great meeting ; that he had been wonderfully blessed, and 
that when he returned home to his work the Lord in an 
extraordinary manner poured out his Spirit upon the 
people. Many of the villages near by were earnestly 
seeking salvation, and this pastor had returned to Glas- 
gow for a new baptism, as he said, that he might better 
lead his flock. More than three thousand people had 
joined the various churches as a result of the meeting, 
and many more were ready to unite with them, while 
more than seventeen thousand had signed a temperance 
pledge. One of the ministers of Glasgow declared that 



Moody and Sankey Stir Great Britain. 141 

"dear auld Scotland had never seen such a year of bless- 
ing in all her history." And another testified "that 
Moody and Sankey had done more to revolutionize the 
service of song in the churches, to liberalize the hard 
features of the Scottish faith and to save Scotland from 
the terrible curse of strong drink than had been done 
by any twenty men in the last three hundred years." 

Nothing was more wonderful to the Scotch than the 
boldness with which Moody attacked the liquor traffic on 
every hand. On one occasion he was standing in the 
pulpit in what was known as the Distillers' Kirk, and a 
distiller was acting in the place of Mr. Sankey in lead- 
ing the singing; when in the midst of a most animated 
address he paused and said : "Is there a rich distiller here 
who has made his money by ruining the bodies and souls 
of men? I say to him, If you expect or desire the favor 
of God, make restitution to the right parties. Do not 
think to make peace by giving a thousand pounds to 
build a church. Go to the widows you have made, and to 
the orphans you have made, and to them restore as far 
as lies in your power." 

During the summer the evangelists visited most of the 
large towns in Scotland, and in September they began 
a meeting in Belfast, Ireland. Here the work was a 
success from the start. At one service more than two 
hundred young men accepted Christ. At another the 
people waiting to hear the evangelists stood closely 
packed in a field of about six acres. From Belfast they 
went to Londonderry, and from thence to Dublin, where 
preparations had been made for their coming. "We have 
never before," wrote an Episcopal clergyman, "seen such 
sights in Dublin. One feels that the Spirit of God is 
present, and that a wave of prayer is continually going 



142 Dwight L. Moody. 

up to the throne from the Lord's people." Sometimes 
as many as seven hundred persons would remain to the 
inquiry meetings, asking the way to be saved. The daily 
press published full reports of the meetings, and, as a 
result, the seeds of the Gospel were sown broadcast over 
Ireland. The best people of the community, including 
professors in the University, noblemen, military officers, 
and in many instances Roman Catholic priests, were 
present at the meetings. Moody's hold on all classes be- 
came so strong that it was unpopular to ridicule him. 
It was unsafe to speak of him or Mr. Sankey disrespect- 
fully. During a pantomime at one of the Dublin theatres 
a clown entered and said, "I feel rather Moody." The 
pantaloon rejoined, "I feel rather Sankey-monious." 
From this the galleries hissed them, and not content with 
a negative form of expressing respect, some one started 
"Hold the Fort for I am Coming," and the whole as- 
sembly in the higher story joined in the chorus, and the 
curtain fell until the hymn was concluded. 

From Ireland Moody and Sankey went to England, 
beginning their work in Manchester. Meetings were 
held successively in Sheffield, Birmingham and Liver- 
pool. In the latter city the evangelists found ready a vast 
tabernacle capable of holding eleven thousand persons. 
This was the first structure built for them in Great 
Britain. Here they labored for a month, with remark- 
able success, and then, full of victory, they went up to 
London. 




X. 

THE AWAKENING OF LONDON. 

N account of the London meetings would alone 
fill a volume. London is not one city, but a 
group of cities, and to reach the entire popu- 
lation it was found necessary to hold a series 
of meetings in each of the great quarters of the metropo- 
lis. The first meeting was held on the North Side, in the 
Agricultural Hall, an enormous building, capable of 
holding eighteen thousand people. Two immense taber- 
nacles were erected, one at the East end and the other in 
the South quarter. In the West end the meetings were 
held in Her Majesty's Opera House. All of these build- 
ings were too small for the crowds that came. 

Here, as elsewhere, the evangelists encountered many 
obstacles. Many curious reports of their tour through 
England had gone before them. The World declared that 
"in many large English towns they (the evangelists) 
had the satisfaction of throwing females into convul- 
sions, and have been lucky enough to consign several 
harmless idiots to neighboring lunatic asylums." The 
leading society paper, Vanity Fair, contained many cari- 
catures of both Moody and Sankey, and spoke of their 
meetings in contemptuous tones. Moody was set down 
as an ordinary individual, "with a nasal twang, and a 
large fund of (to English ears) slightly irreverent anec- 
dotes." It was suggested that if some well-known Ritual- 
ist preacher were to go about with a strong assistant 
company and a handsome wardrobe, the results would be 
equally remarkable. The proposal, however, says the 

(i43) 



144 Dwight L. Moody. 

British Weekly, did not "catch on." Everything that 
could be done to counteract Moody's influence and preju- 
dice the public against him was attempted by certain 
papers. Londoners were told that, ''judged by the low 
standard of an American ranter, Mr. Moody is a third- 
rate star." His reading of Scripture was severely 
blamed. "Mr. Moody," said one paper, "with a jocular 
familiarity which painfully jarred on our sense of the 
reverential, translated freely passages of the Bible into 
the American vernacular. The grand, simple stories of 
Holy Writ were thus parodied and burlesqued." The 
most outrageous falsehoods were circulated concerning 
him, falsehoods, it was said, originating in America. 
One report was that the evangelists were sent to London 
by a certain firm of organ manufacturers at a salary of 
twenty-five hundred dollars a year. The report was not 
stopped until the president of the company came out over 
his own signature, certifying that neither Mr. Moody nor 
Mr. Sankey derived any pecuniary advantage from the 
use of the organs of the company. At the request of 
the company a London agent had loaned Mr. Sankey one 
of the organs for use in his services without charge, a 
favor which any organ maker would have been glad to 
do him. One of the leading daily papers of the city 
stated editorially that it was creditably informed that 
"Messrs. Moody and Sankey were sent to England by 
Mr. Barnum as a matter of speculation." This was re- 
printed in the London Cosmopolitan and other papers. 
These and similar reports made Moody so sensitive that, 
although the royalty on the hymn and music books in 
England reached the sum of $28,335, ne would accept 
none of it. "But," says the British Weekly, "in spite of 
all the hostility of the press, it soon became manifest, 




MOODY MEETING GLADSTONE. 
"I wish I had your body," said Gladstone. 
"I wish I had your head," quickly responded the evangelist. 

See page 141* 



The Awakening of London. 147 

not only that the common people heard him gladly, but 
that society itself was moved and deeply impressed by 
his preaching." One of the first to attend the meetings 
was Lord Cairns, then Lord Chancellor in Mr. Disraeli's 
Government. He occupied a prominent seat in the Agri- 
cultural Hall, Islington. Very soon nearly all the leaders 
of society had followed his example. The epithets, "per- 
nicious humbugs," "crack-brained Yankee evangelists," 
"pestilential vermin," "Abbots of Unreason," etc., with 
which the anti-Christian press pelted the preachers, 
"gave way to much politer language when the highest 
in the land were numbered among their hearers." It 
was noticed that the rush for tickets for the grand tier 
in the Opera House, which was always occupied by the 
nobility, was greater than that for any other part of the 
building. Indeed, Moody came to be the fashion among 
the most cultured noblemen and ladies of the city, many 
of whom were converted, and became active workers in 
the meetings. 

"There was a man while we were in London," said 
Moody, "who got out a little paper called The Moody 
and Sankey Humbug. He used to have it to sell to the 
people coming from the meetings. He had sold a great 
many thousand copies of a number. He wanted to get 
out another number, and so he came to the meeting to 
get something to put in the paper, but the power of the 
Lord was present and the arrow of conviction went down 
deep into his heart. He went out, not to print the paper, 
but to destroy the paper he had written and to tell what 
the Holy Ghost had done for him." 

The Saturday Review expressed surprise at so many 
persons going to hear Mr. Sankey, ridiculed his singing 
and said of Moody that he was simply a ranter of the 



148 D wight L. Moody. 

most vulgar type ; to which the London Times replied : 
"Mr. Sankey simply confines himself to the kind of tunes 
and to the mode of singing by which large multitudes 
can be most readily brought into harmony. Both the 
crowds and the music, however they may contribute to 
general results, are perfectly legitimate aids, and it is 
merely a matter of good sense for a preacher to employ 
such influences for predisposing his hearers to listen to 
him. But people would not come together for weeks 
merely to hear impressive singing, nor to yield to the 
impulse of association. They came to hear Mr. Moody, 
and the main question is, What has he to say? Is any 
Christian church in this metropolis in a position to say 
that it can afford to dispense with any vigorous effort 
to rouse the mass of our people to a more Christian life? 
The congregations which are to be seen in our churches 
and chapels are but a fraction of the hundreds of thou- 
sands around them, of whom multitudes are living little 
better than a mere animal existence. If any considerable 
portion of them can be roused to a mere design of some- 
thing higher, an immense step is gained ; and if the 
churches are really a higher influence still, Mr. Moody 
will at least have prepared them a better material to think 
upon." 

Lord Shaftesbury thanked God publicly that Moody 
had not been educated at Oxford, because "he had a won- 
derful power of getting at the hearts of men; while the 
common people heard him gladly, many persons of the 
higher station have been stirred with the marvelous sim- 
plicity of his preaching." The Lord Chancellor of Eng- 
land said : "The simplicity of that man's preaching, the 
clear manner in which he sets forth salvation by Christ, 
is to me the most striking and the most delightful thing 



The Awakening of London. 149 

I ever knew in my life." Mr. Gladstone attended the 
meetings and was deeply impressed with the preacher, 
as well as the hunger of the multitudes to hear the Gos- 
pel. When he met Moody he said to him, "I wish I had 
your body." Moody replied, "I wish I had your head!" 
To which Gladstone responded, "I mean I wish I had 
your lungs." And Moody replied again, "I mean I wish 
I had your brains." 

An incident which Moody loved to tell in his sermons 
illustrates the remarkable hold which he obtained on the 
higher classes. "When I was in London," he used to 
say, "there was a leading physician in the city upwards 
of seventy years of age, who wrote me a note to come 
to see him privately about his soul. He was living at a 
country-seat a little way out of London, and he came into 
town only two or three times a week. He was wealthy and 
was nearly retired. I received the note right in the midst 
of the London work, and told him I could not see him. 
I received a note a day or two after from a member 
of his family, urging me to come. The latter said his 
wife had been praying for him for fifty years, and all 
the children had become Christians by her prayers. She 
had prayed for him all those years, but no impression 
had been made upon him. Upon his desk they had found 
the letter from me, and they came up to London to see 
what it meant, and I said I would see him. When we 
met I asked him if he wanted to become a Christian, and 
he seemed every way willing, but when it came to confes- 
sion to his family, he halted. T tell you,' said he, T cannot 
do that; my life has been such that I would not like to 
confess before my family.' 'Now, there is the point; if 
you are not willing to confess Christ, he will not confess 
you; you cannot be his disciple.' We talked for some 



150 D wight L. Moody. 

time, and he accepted. I found while I had been in one 
room his daughter and some friends, anxious for the 
salvation of that aged father, were in the other room 
praying to God, and when he started out willing to go 
home and confess Christ, I opened the door of the other 
room, not knowing the daughter was there, and the first 
words she said were: 'Is my father saved?' 'Yes, I 
think he is,' I answered, and ran down to the front door 
and called him back. 'Your daughter is here,' I said; 
'this is the time to commence your confession.' The 
father, with tears trickling down his cheeks, embraced 
his child, 'My dear daughter, I have accepted Christ,' 
and a great flood of light broke upon him at that con- 
fession." 

The meeting continued from the 9th of March until 
the 1 2th of July. It was said that "the city in all of its 
history had never before seen such displays of the power 
of God in the conversion of men of all classes and con- 
ditions." The noonday prayer-meetings, usually held by 
Moody himself, were attended by vast multitudes. At 
these meetings requests for prayers were read from all 
sorts and conditions of men. There were requests from 
convicts, publicans and intemperate women, and there 
were requests from the wealth and culture of society, the 
world of letters, the army, the navy, and the nobility. 
"One day," says a writer, "a poor woman in Newgate 
Prison, condemned to death, sent a request for prayers 
to be read at Her Majesty's Opera House, on hearing 
which a great congregation, composed largely of the no- 
bility and gentry of London, seemed to be touched with 
pity, and joined in the prayer for the soul of this poor 
criminal in a manner which showed that the Lord himself 
was in it." 



The Awakening of London. 151 

Newman Hall declared that never before had any 
Christian minister of a dissenting church succeeded in 
getting the ears of the titled nobility of England, who, 
as a class, were in sympathy with the Established 
Church; "but," he added, "your American evangelists 
have brought us all together. Now the most common 
thing is to see the highest people of the land at these 
meetings. Many times they are seen sitting side by side 
with the poorest." The talk of the whole city, and in- 
deed of the whole country, was of the work of the Lord 
going on in London. Moody was quoted and com- 
mended in a sermon preached by the Archbishop of 
York. The people took hold of the Sankey songs and 
ten thousand voices were often heard singing in unison, 
"Hold the Fort" and "Ninety and Nine." The Sankey 
songs were heard in the cars, in the homes of the peo- 
ple, in the churches and in the streets. A writer said 
that it was "almost impossible to get out of reach of 
these heavenly melodies." At the farewell meeting 
which was held in Camberwell Hall on the nth of July, 
1875, the Earl of Shaftesbury said that "if the American 
evangelists had done no more than to teach the people 
to sing as they did such hymns as 'Hold the Fort,' they 
had by this alone conferred on them an inestimable bless- 
ing." 

"Twenty-five years have passed," writes George Adam 
Smith, in his "Life of Henry Drummond," "since the 
American evangelists began their mission in Great 
Britain. We have seen how profoundly the churches 
were stirred and the crowds outside the churches, and 
the tens of thousands who thronged the meetings, the 
hundreds upon hundreds who filled each inquiry-room, 
professing penitence, and in the great majority of cases, 



152 Dwight L. Moody. 

professing new light in Jesus Christ, and experience 
of his power to make them better men. No one can 
doubt the enormous power of the movement so long as 
it lasted. What has it left behind? Probably, as we 
have seen, there never was a movement of the kind in 
which religious extravagance and dissipation were more 
honestly discouraged. In the leaders there was no want 
of healthy discrimination and genial charity, without 
which our religious zeal so fatally develops into Phari- 
seeism. The teaching was Biblical and ethical, the doc- 
trines were those of Catholic Christianity, the salvation 
proclaimed was, with some exceptions, salvation not 
from hell, but from sin, and the new faith and energy 
of the converts was nearly everywhere guided into 
profitable forms of activity, with effects upon character 
and service that, as we shall presently see, have endured 
until to-day." 

After recalling some of the discouraging features of 
the movement, such as the perils to which such enor- 
mous crowds of converts were exposed, and the fact that 
some even of the prominent workers fell to that heredi- 
tary taint of drunkenness which affects the nation's 
blood, Professor Smith says : "But while all these de- 
fects happen to be noticed, how much falls to the bright 
side of the reckoning! Every one who shared in the 
movement, or who has read its history, will admit with- 
out question those beneficial effects which we have al- 
ready noticed upon the membership and ministry of all 
the churches. This mission lifted thousands and tens of 
thousands of persons already trained in religion to a 
more clear and decided consciousness of their Chris- 
tianity. It baptized crowds in the Spirit of Jesus, and 
opened the eyes of innumerable men and women to a 



The Awakening of London. i 53 

reality of the great facts of repentance and conversion, 
to the possibility of self-control, and of peace by God's 
Spirit. 

Professor Smith says that the young men who came 
under its influence are now in middle life, "and to-day 
one can point to ministers in many churches, and to lay- 
men in almost every town, who were first roused to faith, 
and first enlisted in the cause of God and of their fellow- 
men by the evangelists in 1873-75. The Spirit of our 
God can work within us many other ways than by re- 
vivals and church services, and the evangelical move- 
ment which Messrs. Moody and Sankey did so much to 
reinforce has required every iota of influence and science 
to teach it tolerance, accuracy and fearlessness of facts, 
and all the strength of the Socialist movement to re- 
waken the sense of civic and economic duties by which 
the older evangelism of Wilberforce, Chalmers and 
Shaftesbury were so notably distinguished; and among 
the men who have seen them, and who have not only 
preserved these names amid the new distractions of our 
time, but to their names have added knowledge and pa- 
triotism and the brotherly love which means the service 
of the commonweal, have been many — very many — con- 
verts of the two American evangelists whom God in his 
grace sent to our shores twenty-five years ago," 




XL 

REVIVALS IN AMERICAN CITIES. 

N returning from England Moody sought a 
brief rest in the seclusion of his mother's 
home at Northfield. While here it was 
his privilege to lead his brother Samuel to 
Christ. "He became," said Moody, "an active Chris- 
tian, and when they decided to have a Young Men's 
Christian Association in that town they elected him 
president. Oh, that was a blessed day for me when my 
brother, converted to God after twenty years of prayer, 
took charge of that little band. I heard him make his 
first speech, and that seemed the happiest day of my life. 
He searched for souls on both sides of the Connecticut 
River. More conversions took place after I left than 
when I was there. . . . No one knows how I loved 
him and how I rejoiced with great joy." 

The news of the wonderful work of God in Great 
Britain had started revival fires in many American cities, 
and from the hour he landed in New York, Moody was 
besieged with requests for his services. His success 
abroad had given him wonderful prestige at home, and 
when in October he began his Brooklyn campaign he was 
probably the most influential man in America. There 
were many who were afraid that he would fail to make 
the impression at home that he had made abroad, since 
his peculiar methods were a novelty in Great Britain, 
and there were many others who thought that going to 
Brooklyn, a city famous the world over for its religious 
privileges, was like "carrying coals to New Castle." "0 

(^4) 



Revivals in American Cities. 157 

Lord God," said Moody when he arose to begin his first 
meeting in the Rink, ''behold thou hast made the heavens 
and the earth by thy great power and outstretched arm, 
and there is nothing too hard for thee." With this faith 
he stormed Brooklyn, and he took the city. 

"This looks like slow work," said Dr. Cuyler one win- 
ter morning in 1872 when Moody, then without fame, 
was holding a little meeting in Brooklyn with only a 
handful of people assembled to hear him. 

"It has been a great awakening for the Brooklyn peo- 
ple," wrote Dr. Cuyler of the first meeting in the Brook- 
lyn campaign two years later. "There is no other man 
in the world but Moody who could have gotten them 
out of bed at such an hour on Sunday morning." 

The meeting began with a half-past eight o'clock ser- 
vice on Sunday morning, October 24, 1875. Long be- 
fore that time the streets were thronged with people, and 
when the doors were opened the great Rink, capable of 
seating five thousand, was quickly filled and thousands 
were left disappointed without. It was a remarkable 
meeting. The intense earnestness of the evangelist held 
the audience breathless. "It is not we who fight," said 
he, "but God through us. You would laugh at seven 
priests marching around the walls of Jericho blowing 
rams' horns. If the doctors of Brooklyn should blow 
trumpets you would say they should be of silver or gold. 
God's ways are not our ways. I would like to speak 
through a ram's horn to the forty thousand ministers of 
the United States to-day and ask if they are ready to fall 
into line and go up and possess the land." 

"We are ready," cried a minister on the platform. 

"Then," answered Moody amid a great sensation, 
"let us go up and possess the land." 



158 D wight L. Moody. 

"In the afternoon thousands were unable to gain ac- 
cess to the Rink and overflow meetings were -held in the 
neighboring churches. During the week meetings were 
held in the tabernacle in the morning and at the Rink in 
the evening. At both places the crowds were enormous. 
The influence of the work spread through every grade of 
society and through every part of the city. A story is told 
of a wealthy lady, a skeptic, who went to hear Moody 
preach when the meeting was at its height. She was 
disgusted with his style of oratory, but for some reason 
she could not keep away. On her fourth visit she went 
with the crowd after the sermon to the inquiry room 
and said to Moody that she would like to hear from him 
directly and privately his reasons why she ought to be- 
come a Christian. 

"Madam," he answered, "I know of no surer way to 
reach your heart than through prayer. Let us pray." 

Moody knelt and the lady, in spite of herself, knelt 
with him. He asked her to repeat after him every word 
of his prayer. In low, earnest, pathetic tones he uttered 
his simple supplications, pausing after each sentence for 
his companion to follow. "And now, O Lord," he said 
at last, "I give my life to thee." "Mr. Moody," said the 
lady in a hard, painful whisper, "truly I cannot." Moody 
made no reply. There was a pause of half a minute; 
the silence was intense; then he said, "And now, O Lord, 
I give my life to thee." The lady trembled, but did not 
respond. There was another silence of a moment and 
the evangelist repeated the same words. Then after a 
breathless pause the lady said : "And now, O Lord, I 
give my life to thee." This woman was ever afterwards 
a most earnest Christian worker. 

"One of the most conspicuous persons at the Brooklyn 



Revivals in American Cities. 159 

Rink," says Moody, "was a man of over fifty years, a 
reporter, apparently of a sensational sort. One of my 
friends entered into conversation with him the second 
evening, and found him partially intoxicated, ribald, 
sneering, and an infidel. Inquiring further concerning 
him, we found that he had been several times in the city 
jail for drunken brawls, although originally a man of 
culture and polish. Time passed, and on our last day 
at Brooklyn the same man, conspicuous by his command- 
ing figure, sat in a back seat in the Simpson Church. My 
friend accosted him once more, and this was the answer : 

' 'I am waiting to thank Mr. Moody, who, under God, 
has been the greatest blessing of my life. I have given 
up my engagement, the temptations of which are such 
as no Christian can face. And I am a Christian — a new 
creature ; not reformed ; you cannot reform a drunkard ; 
I have tried that a hundred times ; but I am regenerated, 
born again by the grace and power of God. I have re- 
ported sermons many a time, simply to ridicule them, 
but never had the least idea what true religion meant 
until I heard Mr. Moody's address on "Love and Sym- 
pathy," ten days ago, and I would not have believed there 
could be so much sweetness in a lifetime as has been con- 
densed into those ten days. My children knew the 
change ; my wife knew it ; I have set up the family altar, 
and the appetite for liquor has been utterly taken away, 
so that I only loath what I used to love.' 'Let him that 
standeth take heed lest he fall/ suggested my friend. 

' 'No, not while I stand so close to the cross as I do 
to-day;' and he opened a small hymn book, on the fly- 
leaf of which was written : T have set my face like a 
flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.' ' 

On the 19th of November, while the demand for 



i6o D wight L. Moody. 

tickets of admission was increasing and the tide of re- 
ligious interest was still rising, the meeting was brought 
to a close. During the three weeks' services about three 
thousand persons attended the inquiry meetings and as 
many as twenty thousand heard the Gospel daily. No 
attempt was made to count the conversions, but multi- 
tudes turned to the Lord, and thousands of ministers and 
teachers who had come from a distance returned to their 
homes with a new blessing, resulting in the kindling of 
revival fires in thousands of towns throughout the coun- 
try. The press also spread the words of the preacher 
among the people, reaching millions who could not come 
within the sound of the Gospel from the evangelist's lips. 

From Brooklyn Moody and Sankey went to Philadel- 
phia where extensive preparations ' had been made for 
them, largely through the liberality of John Wanamaker, 
the philanthropist. The Philadelphians are a proverb- 
ially conservative people, and it was doubtful whether 
they would ever fill the large building prepared for the 
meeting; but at the opening service on Sunday, Novem- 
ber 21, there were nine thousand persons who had come 
through torrents of rain, and the meeting which con- 
tinued for two months has been described as a Pente- 
cost. "It was a new revelation of the power of the Gos- 
pel, and marked the opening of a new era in Christian 
labor and fellowship in the city of Brotherly Love." 

During this meeting Moody took up a collection for 
a building for the Young Men's Christian Association, 
amounting to a hundred thousand dollars. Among the 
contributions was a diamond ring which came to 
Moody in this letter : 

Dear Mr. Moody : — Through the instrumentality of the blessed 
meetings now closing, my darling son, a prodigal, and his wife are 



Revivals in American Cities. 161 

now resting in the shade of his love. The accompanying ring, the gift 
of one dearly beloved, and so long worn it seems a part of myself, I 
now offer to my dear Lord and Master as a thank-offering for this 
unspeakable blessing. Do with it as the Holy Spirit directs." 

The ring was sold for a thousand dollars. 

The meeting which began in New York, February 7, 
1876, resulted in one of the greatest revivals of modern 
times. Mr. Nathaniel P. Babcock* has given a graphic 
description of the opening scene in the great Hippo- 
drome in which the meetings were held. 

"As early. as six o'clock, the multitude gathered to- 
gether, and an hour later Madison avenue in front of the 
Hippodrome, for two blocks, was impassable. The crowd 
was attracted chiefly by curiosity. It was recruited 
mainly from church-members. It was a well-to-do, well- 
behaved, well-dressed throng, such as you may see at a 
popular lecture or concert, but swollen to enormous pro- 
portions. It awaited the opening of the doors only with 
the impatience that comes from physical discomfort. It 
was not clamorous with the enthusiasm of disciples in a 
holy cause — not then, not that opening night. Such sol- 
dier-like enthusiasm, such fret at anything that delayed 
the privilege of joining in the battle against unrighteous- 
ness which was being waged within the old Hippodrome, 
came later and came quickly, but in the inaugural even- 
ing of Moody and Sankey's campaign, a desire simply to 
see the evangelists had caused the multitude to assemble. 
Reports from other places of their enormous success in 
attracting the populace had made it obvious to New 
Yorkers that there would be a rush to see them in that 
city. This was the reason for the early assemblage. 

*" When Moody and Sankey Stirred New York." By Nathaniel P. Babcock, in 
Ladies' Home Journal. 
II 



1 62 D wight L. Moody. 

"Long before the main doors were opened the privi- 
leged holders of tickets to the platform, or the press 
tables, were allowed to pass in at side entrances. The 
scene within the Hippodrome at the moment before en- 
trance was permitted to the impatient multitude on the 
streets, was, as I vividly recall it, extremely interesting. 
On the mammoth stage in even rows sat the choir, singers 
picked from a number of city churches, and all under 
command of that sweet-voiced leader, L. P. Thatcher, of 
Boston. The vast unoccupied amphitheatre seemed even 
more spacious than when, shortly afterward, it was filled 
with men and women. Stationed at various points in 
the aisles was an army of volunteer ushers and attend- 
ants. There were two chief dignitaries, who wore gold 
badges lettered in black. Subordinate to them were 
twenty superintendents, with red badges on the lapels of 
their coats, and eighty ushers, whose badges of authority 
were blue, and who held in their hands slender rods of 
white wood. 

"Wonderful were those carefully-made preparations 
for — what ? A prayer-meeting ! Remember, I had many 
times seen that dingy, smoke-stained Hippodrome filled 
with a multitude which crowded every inch of its space. 
That was at the finish of some stupendous athletic con- 
test, and I had seen a cordon of policemen brace them- 
selves to meet the inrushing masses of excited men. But 
here were more elaborate arrangements for handling an 
expected crowd than ever before. Why, in a city like 
New York, had it been supposed that such precautions 
would be needed? What sign in the heavens had men 
seen to lead them to believe that in the great teeming 
metropolis, not lacking for places of amusement or en- 
tertainment, with its theatres, its clubs, its concerts, its 



Revivals in American Cities. 165 

balls, its dinners and myriad social functions, men and 
women in almost uncontrollable numbers would rush to 
hear a preacher on a week-night, or a singer of Psalms ? 
Why? — but the answer was the sudden thunder of 
trampling feet. The doors had been opened. From the 
raised platform the scene was like that of a stampeded 
herd of cattle, or a gigantic flock of sheep led by some 
crazy bellwether. The spaciousness of the Hippodrome, 
and the admirably arranged scheme of aisles and seats, 
however, brought about a speedy settlement. In an in- 
credibly short space of time the seats were filled, and 
by a tremendous effort on the part of the police officers 
the doors had been closed again. 

"Helping to quell the confusion was the effort of the 
choir, which, at a signal from the leader, began the sing- 
ing of some familiar hymn. I do not remember what 
hymn it was in which these six hundred trained voices 
joined, but there is vividly recalled the fact that in the 
midst of it, inspiring as it was, the attention of the vast 
audience was diverted. Even the singers lost enthusi- 
asm, and the volume of sound died off as though the bel- 
lows of some mighty organ had been suddenly punc- 
tured. 

"A little unpainted door at the rear of the platform had 
opened and a man was advancing." 

Mr.'Babcock thus pictures Moody as he appeared at 
this meeting: "A sturdy figure in a tightly-fitting frock 
coat, a well-shaped head, made to look smaller than its 
actual size, because of the broadness of the man's shoul- 
ders and the shortness of the neck on which it was poised ; 
a much-bearded face, the black hair not only hanging 
down over his chest, but growing thickly up each cheek ; 
a forehead seemingly low by reason of its projection be- 



1 66' D wight L. Moody. 

yond the line of the nose ; keen eyes, with wrinkles run- 
ning from their outer corners over ruddy cheeks, and 
a heavy black moustache hiding the mouth. In his hands, 
as he came for the first time into the presence of this 
mighty metropolitan audience, Mr. Moody carried a 
Bible. His fingers were interlaced about it, but as he 
passed through the narrow lane between the choir and 
the platform guests, and reached the front of the stage, 
he shifted the book, and lifted his right hand, palm out- 
ward, toward the vast audience. It was the signal for 
silence, and was heeded on the instant by every one." 

Following Moody through the narrow door came Mr. 
Sankey, who, Mr. Babcock says, was strongly contrasted 
from his co-laborer : "taller, and with features more deli- 
cately chiseled, long, aquiline nose, chin sharp-cut and 
projecting, luxurious side- whiskers and slight mous- 
tache, which failed to hide his white, even teeth." 

When in obedience to Moody's signal, the music had 
ceased and the audience had become entirely attentive, 
the evangelist said, "Let us open the meeting with silent 
prayer." "These were the first words uttered by this re- 
markable man in his work in the chief city of America, 
in that revival, the effects of which spread from end to 
end of the American continent. As he spoke, he bowed 
his head on the railing at the platform edge, then among 
all that vast concourse heads were reverently bent and 
absolute silence prevailed." 

So much for the beginning. "Surely God is in this 
house," said Moody on the fourth day after the meeting 
began. It was scarcely an hour past noon — the busiest 
time of the day — and there was not a vacant seat in the 
Hippodrome. 

There were three meetings a day, sometimes five. 



Revivals in American Cities. 167 

Sometimes in the afternoon women only were admitted 
to the Hippodrome, and they packed it solid from the 
floor to the topmost seat. At night the auditorium would 
be in possession of the men — old men, young men, 
earnest men. At these night meetings Moody was at 
his best. Sometimes eleven thousand men sat before 
him. "No political convention," says Mr. Babcock, 
"ever presented such a scene. Thousands arise and cry, 
'I will,' T will,' when asked to enlist. 'Amens' sweep 
through the place like the rattling of musketry, and 
sometimes the ecstasy of a religion becomes so apparent 
that long intervals of silent prayer are necessary in order 
to keep the sin-stricken within the bounds of self-re- 
straint." 

Among the many great and mighty who attended the 
meeting was Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil. He heard 
Moody preach his thrilling sermon on "What shall I 
do with Jesus which is called Christ," and bowed his 
head in assent when the speaker said, "Even a great em- 
peror cannot save his soul with all his great power un- 
less he bows himself at Christ's feet and accepts him." 

At the closing meeting more than thirty-five hundred 
converts were present. In his address to those who had 
been led to Christ during the meeting, Moody said : "It 
is not too much to expect that each one of you should 
bring in two more to him. One young man came to me 
and said he was converted on the 3d of February. He 
had a list of fifty-nine persons, with the residence of 
each, whom he had been since that time instrumental in 
leading to Christ. Now, if he has led fifty-nine to the 
Saviour, each of you ought to be able to reach some." 
It was estimated that a million and a half of men at- 
tended the meetings at the Hippodrome, and that • ten 



1 68 D wight L. Moody. 

thousand persons were present at the meetings of in- 
quiry. 

"What is the record of conversions?" Somebody 
asked this question of Moody during the meeting. 
"Record," repeated the evangelist, "why that is kept in 
heaven." "Well said," says Mr. Babcock, "for there at 
least it is immutable, whereas the walls that rang with 
the glad cries of converted sinners have long since been 
razed to the ground, and not a stone, nor brick, nor 
joist, nor girder remains to tell the story of what went 
on in that vast auditorium in the early dawn of our great 
Centennial year." 

At the close of the meeting, a leading New York paper 
said of Moody : "Make him the best-read preacher in 
the world, and he would instantly lose half his power. 
Put him through a systematic training in systematic 
theology and you would fasten big logs of fuel to the 
driving wheels of his engine. We shall not soon forget 
his incomparable frankness, his broad undenominational- 
ism, his sledge-hammer gestures, his profuse diction, 
which stops neither for comma nor colon, his trueness 
which never becomes conventional, his naturalness which 
never whines, his abhorrence of Phariseeism and of ec- 
clesiastical Machiavelism, his mastery of his subject, his 
glorious self-confidence, his blameless life, and his un- 
swerving fealty to his conscience and his work." 

Smaller meetings occupied the spring, and in the au- 
tumn Moody and Sankey advanced upon Chicago. Al- 
though Moody was here at home, where one is usually 
without honor, the whole community was quickly 
aroused and the wonderful scenes enacted in the Hippo- 
drome were repeated. Here, as in New York, the 
crowds were enormous, and as many as a thousand per- 



Revivals in American Cities., 169 

sons presented themselves as inquirers during a single 
day. In the interim between the regular services, Moody 
frequently preached to the Germans in Farwell Hall. 
Soon the revival influences spread out from Chicago into 
many of the cities of the Northwest, and from every 
direction came calls for help. The meeting was to have 
closed on December 17, but there were such manifesta- 
tions of divine power that it was deemed advisable to 
continue a month longer. On the 20th, Moody wrote 
an appeal to the churches of the Northwest, in which he 
said, "The work in Chicago ought to be regarded as 
only a small part of the great general awakening;" and 
urged them to unite and seek for it in importunate 
prayer. Evangelists were sent out by twos to many of 
the cities — one to sing and one to preach the Word — 
and in all the leading towns for hundreds of miles around 
the Gospel was preached with remarkable results. The 
noonday prayer-meetings in Farwell Hall were thrilled 
again and again as reports came in from the churches, 
and by telegrams from the outlying cities where the 
evangelists were at work, "of the great things God was 
doing in righteousness." One of the most important re- 
sults of the meeting was the fusing together of the 
evangelical churches. Sectarianism seemed to be laid 
low in the dust, and it seemed that it would be impossible 
in this generation ever to revive it. It had come to be 
"the church which is in Chicago." The work continued 
for nearly four months, and at the close the names of 
forty-eight hundred convicts who resided in Chicago 
were recorded. 

It was during this meeting that the news came of the 
terrible Ashtabula disaster, in which Mr. and Mrs. P. P. 
Bliss lost their lives. Moody was deeply attached to Mr. 



lyo Dwight L. Moody. 

Bliss, whose songs had done so much for him in his 
evangelistic efforts, and he was greatly affected by the 
distressing intelligence. Mr. Bliss was a Pennsylvanian 
by birth, of humble extraction, and in early life had few 
advantages of education or culture. He married a young 
lady of his own social position, who possessed great 
strength of character and deep religious principle, and 
it was she who inspired him with confidence in his 
musical abilities and aided and encouraged their develop- 
ment. As a composer he will long be remembered as 
the author of many of the Gospel Hymns, such as "Hold 
the Fort," "What Shall the Harvest Be," etc. In early 
life he moved to Chicago, and when Major Whittle en- 
tered upon revival work he decided to accompany him. 
They traveled through the West and South, Mr. Whittle 
preaching and Mr. Bliss singing the Gospel Hymns. It 
had been arranged that at the close of the Moody and 
Sankey meetings in Chicago, Mr. Whittle and Mr. Bliss 
should take up the work; "but God had other plans for 
the sweet singer of Israel." On the night of Friday, 
December 29, while he was on his way to Chicago, he 
and his wife perished in the terrible railway accident at 
Ashtabula, Ohio. A few days later Moody held a me- 
morial service in the Chicago Tabernacle, and shortly 
afterwards set on foot a movement by which ten thou- 
sand dollars was raised for a monument and for the 
benefit of the orphaned children. 

Boston, where the next meeting was held, proved to 
be a difficult field. "In the first place," says a writer, 
"dissensions arose among certain brethren as to who 
should sit at Mr. Moody's right hand and who should 
sit at his left hand in the revival. And then there was 
a spirit -of investigation which Moody had nowhere 



Revivals in American Cities. 171 

else encountered to any great extent." This gave him 
crowded audiences at the Tabernacle, and crowded au- 
diences at the inquiry meetings. But the inquiry was 
not what they should do to be saved, but as to the 
philosophy of the man and his methods. As some one 
has said, "It was old Athens over again desiring to see 
and hear new things." For several weeks the work 
dragged painfully, though a few had professed conver- 
sion. In March Moody proposed to establish local noon- 
day prayer-meetings throughout the city. After this, 
a house to house visitation was projected and carried 
forward with remarkable success. Then a breakfast for 
the poor was given — a movement chiefly forwarded by a 
devoted woman whose efforts on behalf of the suffering 
and neglected were a means of grace to the whole city. 
The revival was now fairly launched, and by the middle 
of April the interest in the meetings became so great 
throughout New England that more than four hundred 
churches outside of Boston had pledged themselves to 
pray daily for the work in Boston, with the understand- 
ing that Boston was to pray daily for them. Soon news 
of revivals began to come in from other parts of the 
State, and from New Hampshire and Connecticut. A 
notable feature of the meeting was a temperance conven- 
tion held on the 20th of April. Another interesting 
feature was a visitation of the saloons by a committee 
of thirty members of the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation, some of whom were reformed men and could 
speak from the heart to the people they met. About fif- 
teen hundred saloons were visited, and hundreds of per- 
sons were found who were glad to accept a ticket for a 
reserved seat at the Tabernacle meeting. 

During the last week of his work in Boston, Moody 



1J2 D wight L. Moody. 

took occasion to reply to some of the charges made* 
against him in regard to the financial side of the meet- 
ing. "The royalties on our hymn-books last year," he 
said, "amounted to $68,000, but we did not take it. It 
went into the hands of three trustees. As far as dollars 
and cents are concerned, I could make more in one night 
than I have made in Boston. I have been offered five 
hundred dollars a night to go out and lecture. Some of 
my friends awhile ago got anxious about my money mat- 
ters, and determined that my family should have a home ; 
so they bought a place and fitted it up at a total expense 
of $10,000; and now, if I die, my wife and children will 
have a roof over their heads. Somebody refused to come 
to the inquiry room because 'Mr. Moody bought a horse, 
and gave $4,000 for it.' Take off $3,750 and it will be 
all right." 




XII. 
MOODY AS A PREACHER. 

T has been said time and again with a great 
deal of emphasis that Moo'dy was in no sense 
an orator. Even among his friends there 
have been many who seemed to feel that 
they were magnifying the grace of God by insisting that 
he was without oratorical ability. Thousands who went 
to hear him with the hope of learning the secret of his 
power shook their heads and said that "it was not in 
what he said nor the way he said it." Nevertheless it 
has become more and more apparent in late years that 
Moody's name will pass into history as one of the great- 
est preachers of the century. If by oratory is meant a 
florid style and sustained and impassioned emotional 
eloquence, Moody was not an orator; but if by oratory is 
meant 'the power to persuade men, he was one of the 
most eloquent men of our time. Sacred oratory, as has 
been said, may be of different kinds. One man, for ex- 
ample, may be highly imaginative and another may be 
plain and matter of fact in his statements, suppressing 
very largely his feelings, and yet at the same time mak- 
ing them deeply felt. Moody was of this latter sort. He 
was not, as a rule, an impassioned speaker, though he 
often moved men to tears; but he put things in a plain, 
simple way and yet so as to make himself felt by the 
suppression of his feelings rather than by expressing 
them. It has been said that this was probably unde- 
signed and unconscious on his part. He was too sincere 
a man to attempt to practice upon men and it was all 

(!73) 



174 D wight L. Moody. 

the more effective for being unconscious. Henry Drum- 
mond says that for sheer persuasive force Moody had 
few equals. "Rugged as his preaching may seem to 
some hearers, there is in its pathos a quality which few 
orators have ever reached, and an appealing tenderness 
which not only wholly redeems it, but raises it not un-i 
seldom almost to sublimity. No report can do the faint- 
est justice to this or the other most characteristic quali- 
ties of his public speech." 

He then gives a specimen taken at random: "I can 
imagine, when Christ said to the little band around him, 
'Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel,' Peter 
said, 'Lord, do you really mean that we are to go back 
to Jerusalem and preach the Gospel to those men that' 
murdered you?' 'Yes,' said Christ, 'go hunt up that 
man that spat in my face: tell him that he may have a 
seat in my kingdom yet. Yes, Peter, go find that man 
that made that cruel crown of thorns and placed it on 
my brow, and tell him I will have a crown ready for him 
when he enters my kingdom, and there will be no thorns 
in it. Hunt up that man that took a reed and brought it 
down over the cruel thorns, driving them into my brow, 
and tell him I will put a sceptre in his hand, and he shall 
rule over the nations of the earth if he will accept salva- 
tion. Search for the man that drove the spear into my 
side, and tell him there is a nearer way to my heart 
than that. Tell him I forgive him freely, and that he 
can be saved if he will accept salvation as a gift. Tell 
him there is a nearer way to my heart than that.' ' 

Of this, Professor Drummond says: "Prepared or 
impromptu, what dramatist could surpass that touch?" 

Dr. Chapman, a man of fervid eloquence, says that 
Moody was a master of the art of moving men. "I can 



Moody as a Preacher. 177 

shut my eyes now and see him with tears flowing down 
his face as he plead to men to turn to Christ, sobs break- 
ing his utterances, as he told of the love of God to men 
and of God's special love to himself." 

Dr. Buckley insists that men who say Moody was no 
orator either never heard him or they have a different 
idea of oratory from that held by Daniel Webster. 
Moody had "clearness, force, and earnestness;" his sin- 
cerity was manifest, his pathos was sometimes over- 
whelming. In his sermons in London his great audi- 
ences were sometimes moved to their depths. Dr. Buck- 
ley also says that Moody improved as an orator as long 
as he lived, and that his improvement was one of the 
proofs of his natural endowment. 

Mr. Nason thought that he was in the higher sense a 
poet. He did not make rhymes or verse, and yet he had 
the glowing conceptions of a poet and he told things 
vividly and painted them vividly. While his use of meta- 
phors was not very frequent, he at times manifested won- 
derful power in the representation of actual or imaginary 
scenes. Take for example his description on one occa- 
sion of a scene of sorrow: "One of my little scholars was 
drowned and word was sent by the mother that she 
wanted to see me. I went. The dripping body was there 
on the table; the husband was in the corner drunk. The 
mother said she had no money to buy a shroud or coffin 
and wanted to know if I could not bury Adeline." What 
could be more graphic? 

He could use a poetic phrase or figure which was 
wholly his own and with a simple naturalness without 
thought of its effect. Of this Dr. Trumbull has given us 
a striking example: 

"Thirty years ago I heard him tell of an early morning 
12 



178 Dwight L. Moody. 

prayer-meeting at a State convention in Vermont, from 
which he had just come to Massachusetts. When he had 
proposed that meeting at that unusual hour, he was told, 
t>y those familiar with the place, that no one would at- 
tend it. 

" 'But the people did come out,' he said. 'In the light 
of the stars, before the sun rose, that church was filled 1 
with praying people. And, as we prayed there, we could 
almost hear the footsteps of Almighty God on the tops 
of those grand old mountains, as he came down there 
to bless us all before the day broke.' " 

No man of our time or perhaps of any time could use 
illustrations with such telling effect as he was accus- 
tomed to use them in every sermon. Let me give a 
single example: 

"I said to my little family one morning, a few weeks 
before the Chicago fire, 'I am coming home this after- 
noon to give you a ride.' My little boy clapped his 
hands. 'Oh, papa, will you take me to see the bears in 
Lincoln Park?' 'Yes.' You know boys are very fond 
of seeing bears. I had not been gone long when my 
little boy said, 'Mamma, I wish you would get me ready.' 
'Oh,' she said, 'it will be a long time before papa comes.' 
'But I want to get ready, mamma.' At last he was ready 
to have the ride, face washed, and clothes all nice and 
clean. 'Now, you must take good care and not gat 
yourself dirty again,' said mamma. Oh, of course he 
was going to take care; he wasn't going to get dirty. So 
off he ran to watch for me. However, it was a long time 
yet until the afternoon, and after a little he began 
to play. When I got home I found him outside, with his 
face all covered with dirt. 'I can't take you to the 
park that way, Willie.' 'Why, papa? you said you would 



Moody as a Preacher. 179 

take me.' 'Ah, but I can't; you're covered all over with 
mud. I couldn't be seen with such a dirty little boy.' 
'Why, I'se clean, papa; mamma washed me.' Do you 
think I argued with him? No. I just took him up in 
my arms, and carried him into the house, and showed 
him his face in the looking-glass. He had not a word 
to say. He could not take my vyord for it; but one look 
at the glass was enough; he saw it for himself. He didn't 
say he wasn't dirty after that! 

"Now the looking-glass showed him that his face was 
dirty — but I did not take the looking-glass to wash it; 
of course not. Yet that is just what thousands of people 
do. The law is the looking-glass to see ourselves in, to 
show us how vile and worthless we are in the sight of 
God; but they take the law and try to wash themselves 
with it." 

What could be more vivid than that? 

Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, who perhaps stood closer 
to Moody than any other man on the other side of the 
Atlantic, except Drummond, recalls two sermons which 
he heard him preach. The first time his subject was the 
broken law of God. "No more forceful and biting de- 
nunciation of sin have I ever heard. He was the pro- 
phet, and the vast audience numbering at least twenty 
thousand were hushed, subdued, overawed. Knowing 
the terror of the Lord he persuaded men. I dare affirm 
that thousands of people stood face to face that evening 
with the awfulness of. their own sin, startled and smitten. 
The other is that of Moody coming to the close of an 
address on the King's invitation to the Marriage Supper 
of the Lamb. The graciousness of that invitation had 
possessed him that night with new force; the deepest 
fountains of his nature were touched, and he stood before 



180 D wight L. Moody. 

the great crowd moved with his Master's compassion, 
pleading with tender urgency and fine pathos, a strong 
man moved to tears. At last he cried, 'Let those who 
will accept the invitation say "I will," and from every 
part of the hall instantly, immediately, the cry of a mul- 
titude went up, 'I will.' I did not see him again for thir- 
teen years, but through them all the force of his character 
had an influence on my life that I should find hard to 
measure." 

"What word artist," asks Mr. Wells, of the Christian 
Endeavor World, "can paint a truer picture than he? 
'Why that widow woman with her debts pressing upon 
her; can't we see her as she obeys Elisha? Knock! 
knock! knock! "Got any oil jars I may borrow?" To 
the next house. Rap! rap! rap! "Will you lend me some 
empty jars; the biggest you have?" And so on, all the 
morning, while the gossips look out of the window and 
wonder what the widow Rebekah can be doing with so 
many jars! 

"And can't we see Abraham, getting up every once in 
a while during the night to look in the face of that fair 
young boy? 'Why does God ask me to give you up?' 
'He doesn't eat much at breakfast. A terrible struggle 
is going on. He doesn't sleep at all the next night. 
Many a tear is shed, and many a cry goes up to God. 
The next morning he takes no breakfast. ... As 
they walk on, he comes in sight of Mount Moriah. I 
can imagine his heart goes thump! thump! thump! 
against his side.' 

"Ah, how the people listen to the simple, touching 
story, and with what a sweep are we carried from the top 
of Mount Moriah to the hill Calvary, where God indeed 
provided for himself a sacrifice! 




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§ 1 

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£ "3 



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Moody as a Preacher. 183 

"It is in such vivid, picturesque ways that the great 
preacher talks to the multitude. 'Let's get done discuss- 
ing theology,' he urges. 'Let Jonah go. Let's care for 
some of the men that haven't been swallowed.' 

"Moody wins souls because he is in earnest. 

"One of the most striking of Mr. Moody's addresses 
was that given before the Boston Christian Endeavor 
Union on Christian Endeavor Day. The magnificent 
audience of six thousand souls filled Mechanics' Hall, 
and inspired the speaker by their eager listening. The 
sermon was the story of Daniel's life. 

"Now Daniel is a character akin to Moody's. In both 
men there appear singleness of purpose, undaunted 
allegiance to the truth they see, and tremendous execu- 
tive power. As the evangelist preached, it was plain that 
if the Lord chose to test him with a den of lions or a fiery 
furnace, he would glory in such trial of his faith. 

" T like a man of pluck,' he declared. 'Any half-witted 
man can go with the crowd.' And again: 'Man, you 
stand for God, and God will stand with you. I'd rather 
go into the furnace with God than stay out without him.' 

"He made Daniel live again. It was better than any 
vitascope. 

"The prophet interpreting the king's dream: 'The mo- 
ment he spoke of that image, Nebuchadnezzar's eyes 
flashed. "Yes! That's so! That's my dream!" cried 
the king.' 

"In the furnace: 'No smell of fire on them; not one 
hair was scorched. You can always smell burnt hair.' 

"The writing on the wall: 'Many of those nobles be- 
came sober and turned deathly pale, and the king shook 
like an aspen-leaf.' 

"The plot against Daniel: 'They formed a ring down 



184 Dwight L. Moody. 

in Babylon. You know rings are nothing new.' "See 
that there's a plenty of lions, and that they are hungry. 
We'll not try the fiery furnace again." ' 

"The advice certain 7 modern Christians would have 
given Daniel: 'Miserable, namby-pamby Christians they 
have nowadays; they would have rushed into Daniel's 
office and cried: "There's no sense in disobeying the 
king. You can pray in secret. You can pray walking. 
You can get into your bed and pray under the bed- 
clothes. Don't you let them catch you praying." 

"The story of the informers: 'We heard him pray for 
the king, and we heard him pray for the kingdom, but 
he never prayed to the king.' 

"Darius after he had been tricked into condemning 
Daniel: T see him. He is like a madman, walking up 
and down his palace. "Oh, how could I have signed that 
decree!" ' 

"Daniel on his way to the den of lions: 'How the 
whiskey men must have rejoiced to see him as he 
marched through the streets with a steady tread!' 

"The prophet in the den of lions: 'He had his evening 
prayers as usual. He took the biggest lion for his 
pillow.' 

"The next morning: T see the king's chariot, before 
the sun has risen, sweeping up to the mouth of the lions' 
den.' 

" T have an idea that the king took Daniel back to 
the palace and the two had breakfast together.' 

"What a series of pictures that was! 

"But the evening, after all, was memorable for Mr. 
Moody's closing words about himself: 'This night is a 
milestone for me,' he said. The morrow was his sixtieth 
birthday. God had permitted him to hold these great 



Moody as a Preacher. 185 

meetings in the city where, four decades ago, he had 
brought him into the light of the Gospel. 

"The voice of the evangelist broke, and the tears stood 
in his eyes. 'O pray for me,' he cried, 'that in the years 
God may have left for me I may preach as I have never 
preached before! That God may do his work through 
me, and speak his own words.' 

"And as we looked upon this honored servant of the 
Most High, and remembered his superb labors for the 
Master in many lands, it seemed that not only from those 
listening thousands, but from thousands upon thousands 
more, all over the earth, whom his words and his noble 
spirit had brought to the foot of the cross, there arose a 
deep 'Amen! Amen! God bless his good evangelist!' " 

But as Moody himself often said, "Eloquence and or- 
atory are all very well in their way, but they are not of 
much use unless the third quality of common sense is 
to accompany them." There was much in what he said 
as well as in the way he sai'd it. Moody's theology, ex- 
cept in some minor points, was the theology of the con- 
servative New England pulpit of his boyhood, as repre- 
sented by Dr. Kirk, his Boston pastor. He was a Congre- 
gationalism though he was not a member of any denomi- 
nation, having formed, as I have already said, an inde- 
pendent non-sectarian church of his own. An influ- 
ential New England paper recently remarked that 
Moody's success as an evangelist probably grew largely 
out of the fact of his orthodoxy. "The new theology 
may be truer to the facts of apostolic Christianity, but it 
has not yet shown the capacity to grip the conscience 
and stir the feelings of man as the old. Had he gone 
over to the ranks of the higher critics he might still have 
preached and preached with power, but his messages 



186 Dwight L. Moody. 

would have 'been to the few; he could no longer have 
preached to the masses." There were many who wished 
it otherwise, but as the writer just quoted says: "It is 
probably well they did not have their own way." 

Moody believed in the Bible from cover to cover. To 
him the miracles were exact statements, "not the alle- 
gories of Origen, nor the myths of Strauss, nor the pious 
frauds of Renan." And he believed in the fundamental 
'doctrines of Christianity. "People ask me," he said one 
time, "if I believe in the 'higher criticism.' How can I 
when I don't know what it is? They ask me if I think 
there were two Isaiahs. Before taking up that question 
seriously, I believe we should try to see what the pro- 
phecy itself contains." "Why do you go to hear 
Moody?" said a scoffer contemptuously to a fellow club 
member. "You don't believe what he preaches." "No, 
but he believes it, with all his heart, and it is refreshing 
to meet such a man in these days of doubt and uncer- 
tainty." 

He believed with all his heart in the humbling doc- 
trines of the Bible — that man is utterly depraved and 
must be born again; that Jesus Christ is both God and 
man; that he died for all men, and that he that believeth 
sftiall be saved and that he that believeth not shall be 
damned. One of the secrets of his drawing power was 
his evident familiarity with the spiritual world. People 
felt that he had received a message direct from above and 
they wanted to know what that message was. This 
familiarity was apparent in all the habits of his life. He 
asked for God's direction at every step with absolute 
faith in every promise he found in the Bible. He trusted 
for the supply of all his personal wants to the word of 
God as readily as a man of the world would trust to a 



Moody as a Preacher. 187 

written contract signed by a host of millionaires. "God 
is rich," he would say, and he had no fears. 

He was always aiming at supernatural results. He 
had no confidence in any effort made to repair old hu- 
man nature. Nothing short of regeneration was worth 
looking for. He insisted on an immediate approach to 
God. He believed that his grace was infinite and that 
no amount of sin made any difference with the power 
of Christ to save. He offered a divine and infinite 
remedy for sin and all its penalties. 

His theology, as arranged by himself, was very simple. 
"There are three R's in the Bible," he would say: "Ruin 
by sin; Redemption by Christ, and Regeneration by the 
Holy Ghost." And that was all. 

Moody's plan of preparing his sermons was unique. 
The basis of each sermon was a large envelope. He had 
a number of these labeled with the titles of the sermons 
he wanted to preach, such as, "Repentance," "Faith," 
"Zaccheus," and so on. Into each envelope he would 
put everything that he found on that subject — cuttings 
from papers, extracts from books, incidents in his own 
life, illustrations, etc. When he was going to preach 
he would go through the accumulated mass and weave 
together the best of it in a connected whole. Of this 
he would take a few notes to the pulpit. The process of 
looking through the envelope was frequently repeated, 
so that the points which had been overlooked were 
brought to his mind, fresh illustrations introduced and 
the entire subject presented anew in all its lights. This 
secured freshness in delivery and preserved him from the 
monotony of perpetual repetition. 




XIII. 
METHODS OF WORK. 

OODY'S name has grown to be a synonym 
of method. He had method in everything. 
He believed in details, not indeed for the 
sake of details, but because he felt that no 
detail was too small to be considered in the supreme 
business of winning souls for Christ. He was ever on 
the alert. If there was a vacant seat he saw it. If there 
was a noise in the street he heard it. The opening and 
closing of doors, a tendency to drag in the singing, the 
inability of the people in the corner to hear — all these 
he noticed and sought to remedy. He had the happy 
faculty of knowing how to cut out plans without giving 
them a chance to dry. This was perhaps due largely to 
the snap which pervaded his whole being. He believed 
in making things move. He never allowed the service 
to drag under any circumstances. Nobody could com- 
plain of awkward pauses or weary moments of waiting. 
Dr. Wharton says that he has gone with him to a great 
theatre building, when no one was in the house except 
the employes. "As soon as the people came rushing in 
he was ready to start the singing. Not that he sang him- 
self. He makes 'a joyful noise unto the Lord,' and, as a 
gentleman remarked, when asked what he thought of 
Mr. Moody's singing, T could at least say I have never 
hard anything like it.' " 

Dr. Chapman says that he used to love to watch him 
in the meetings he conducted. "His eyes were always 
open to take in the most minute details of the service, 

(188) 



Methods of Work. 191 

things to which other ministers would be blind. He 
was ever seeing. I frequently almost lost the message 
he was giving in my admiration of the messenger. While 
he was sitting in the first part of the service he would 
make a dive into his pocket, take out a piece of paper, 
and write a message to some one of his workers, put 
down an illustration, or record something which was to 
be the seed-thought of a future sermon." 

Moody never allowed any one to run the meeting for 
him. He always insisted upon having his own way, no 
matter in whose church he might be. He believed in 
advertising. "The more publicity given evangelistic 
meetings and addresses the better," he would say; and 
again, "There is no method of circulation like the press. 
What I or any other man can say is heard only by 
one or two thousand people — and that is a large audi- 
.ence. The essence of the sermon is often conveyed to 
two or three hundred thousand in a single newspaper." 

He was always careful to see that ample accommoda- 
tions for reporters was provided. During his World's 
Fair campaign he had a bulletin-board made, upon 
which large notices could be fastened. These were 
placed outside of the church. In one case, the church 
officer objected to the bulletin as being undignified. 
"Undignified!" exclaimed Air. Moody, "why, that is 
just like a lot of these fossils — killing their church with 
dignity! I should like to know if it is not a good deal 
more undignified to have a minister preach to an empty 
church fifty times a year? When you've something 
good to give a hungry world, let them know it and you 
will fill the church." 

One evening in San Francisco he sat in his room at 
the hotel playing a game of "Authors" with Mrs. Moody 



tc)2 Dwight L. Moody. 

and two friends, when a messenger came in with a dis- 
patch. As the boy stood waiting for an answer, Moody 
suddenly asked, "Won't you sit down, my lad, and have 
a game of 'Authors' with us?" The boy declined, and 
presently left the room. The door had hardly closed 
when Mrs. Moody said, "Why, Dwight, what made you 
think of inviting that boy to sit down and play with us?" 

"My clear," replied Moody, "don't you see, if I had 
not called the boy's attention to the fact that we were 
playing 'Authors,' all the morning papers would cer- 
tainly have announced under big headlines that D. L. 
Moody had been discovered in a San Francisco hotel 
engaged in a game of cards?" 

Once while in Boston he was accused of lowering the 
pulpit because he insisted that the Church should seek 
those who did not seek the Church. He replied, "If 
lowering the pulpit means bringing it to the people, then 
I would to God that I could lower it. If I wanted to hit 
Boston, you don't think I would mount my gun on 
Bunker Hill Monument, and fire into the air, do you?" 
He was a great Christian strategist — "never so happy," 
says Mr. Meyer, "as when organizing some great cam- 
paign, like that during the World's Fair at Chicago, 
when he occupied the largest halls in Chicago with 
evangelists gathered from all the world; or when in later 
years, he promoted the distribution of Bibles and the 
holding of evangelistic meetings among the soldiers 
of the Cuban army. He was the Von Moltke of the re- 
ligious world in the United States. He would lay plans 
for a winter's campaign in such a city as New York, or 
Boston; would engage some large central building, and 
hold two or three meetings a day, interesting reporters 
and gaining the attention of the press, working out pres- 



Methods of Work. 193 

ently into new quarters of the city, until the whole com- 
munity had felt the impact of the religious momentum 
communicated through him. Ministers would open 
their churches and respond to his appeals for help; lists 
of converts would be furnished to the several churches; 
and the whole campaign so contrived as to increase the 
zeal and activity of the churches that had ranged them- 
selves under his leadership." 

No man was ever more at home on the platform, and 
no man ever had greater success in making people feel 
at home in the audience. At the strangers' meetings, 
which he often held, he spoke with such freedom as few 
men would have dared to do. He determined to make 
strangers feel perfectly at home, and he greeted them 
with the heartiness of an old friend. He would ask their 
names, where they lived,, what they were doing, what 
church they attended; then he would give them such in- 
formation and advice as 'he thought would be of prac- 
tical service. 

"You, brother, over there by the first window; do you 
love the Lord?" he would say. 

"That red-haired man on the back seat, are you a 
Christian?" And the timid brother thus addressed 
would rise tremblingly to his feet and give a reason for 
the hope that was in him, if he had one. Thereupon 
Moody would immediately ask his name, and residence, 
note them down in his book, and tell the new man that 
he was now to count himself an old member and begin 
to help others feel at home. 

"Sometimes," says Mr. Daniels, "he would walk up 
and down the aisles, looking into the faces of the con- 
gregation for signs of the work of the Holy Spirit on 
their hearts; and when he noticed a person who seemed 
13 



194 Dwight L. Moody. 

to be thoughtful, or penitent, he would go straight to his 
side and say, 'Are you a Christian?' If the answer was 
at all doubtful, he would instantly follow with, "Do you 
want to be saved? Do you want to be saved now?" 
And, before the half-penitent sinner had time to make 
objections, he would have him on his knees in prayer, 
kneeling himself beside him, while the whole congrega- 
tion were kneeling around him. "The man thus pub- 
licly brought out as a seeker of religion would generally 
give himself up to the Lord, being as it were, pushed 
headforemost into the kingdom of heaven; though un- 
der a less impetuous leader he might, for years, have 
dragged himself along at a snail's pace toward the en- 
trance of the church. 

"Everything was done promptly; no long speeches or 
prayers were tolerated. Sometimes a slow-going brother 
would fail to notice the stroke of the bell, which was a 
warning that his three minutes were up, and if the one 
in charge of the meeting hesitated in his duty, Mr. 
Moody would jump to his feet and perhaps ask the 
stranger a question. Then catching the first few words 
of his answer, he would use it as a rudder with which to 
bring the meeting up before the wind and send it off on 
its proper course again." 

It was his rule to make the most of every incident that 
could in any way serve his purpose in winning souls. 
One Sunday, during the World's Fair campaign, he 
preached a sermon from the text, "The Son of Man is 
come to save that which was lost." 

When he had finished, a little boy was brought to the 
platform by an officer, who said he found him wandering 
in the crowd, evidently lost. Moody took the little fel- 
low up in his arms and, standing before the great throng, 
asked the people to look at the lost child. 



Methods of Work. 19S 

"This boy has a father who is no doubt at this mo- 
ment looking for him with an anxious heart," said the 
preacher. "The father is more anxious to find his boy 
than his boy is to be found. It is just so with our Heav- 
enly Father. He is seeking us to-day, seeking us 
with unspeakable solicitude. For long years he has been 
following you. Oh, sinner; he is following you still. He 
is calling to you to-day." 

At this instant a man with blanched face and excited 
eye was seen elbowing his way toward the platform. As 
he reached it the little boy saw him, and, running quickly 
over the platform, threw himself into his father's out- 
stretched arms. The multitude witnessed the scene with 
breathless attention, and then broke out into a mighty 
cheer. 

He knew what he could do and what he could not do, 
and he was careful to take account of his limitations, as 
well as of his power. He believed in his ability to con- 
trol an audience, and he never found one beyond his 
strength. The story is told that when he was on a trip 
in the western part of Massachusetts he called on a min- 
ister at the end of the week, thinking to spend the Sab- 
bath with him. The man appeared to be glad to see 
him and said: "I should be very glad to have you stop 
and preach for me to-morrow, but I feel almost ashamed 
to ask you." 

"Why, what is the matter?" said Mr. Moody. 

"Why, our people have got into such a habit of going 
out before meeting is closed, that it seems to be an impo- 
sition on a stranger." 

"If that is all, I must and will stop and preach for 
you," was Mr. Moody's reply. 

When the Sabbath day came and Mr. Moody had 



196 Dwight L. Moody. 

opened the meeting- and named the text, he looked 
around the assembly, and said: 

"My hearers, I am going to speak to two sorts of 
folks — saints and sinners. Sinners, I am going to give 
you a portion first, and I would have you give good at- 
tention." 

When he had preached to them as long as foe thought 
best, he paused and said: "There, sinners, I have done 
with you now; you may take your hats and go out of 
the meeting-foouse as soon as you please." 

But all tarried and heard him through. On another 
occasion, when he was addressing a. crowd of roughs, 
a man in the rear of the assembly kept shouting to him, 
' 'Old yer jaw there." For some time Moody paid no 
attention to his insulting remarks, 'but at length he 
deemed it necessary to call him to order, and when the 
man spoke again, he calmly replied: "Don't forget, my 
friend, that example is better than precept." The re- 
buke — it is hardly necessary to add — had the desired 
effect. 

Dr. Trumbull gives a pleasing instance of Moody's 
regard for his limitations. 

"In the fall of 1878," he writes, "when he was con- 
ducting a series of meetings in Baltimore, he tele- 
graphed me, asking if I would come down and pass 
the night with him, as he wanted to talk a matter over 
with me. 

"I went down, joined him in his meeting, and then 
passed the night in his temporary room. In the morn- 
ing he asked me to conduct worship in his family group. 
I said I would read the passage for next Sunday's lesson, 
'Zaccheus the Publican.' Noticing my pronunciation 
of the proper name, he said, Ts that the way to call it?' 



Methods of Work. n 197 

'Yes/ I said, 'the proper pronunciation is "Zach-che'us," 
but we Yankees most always start the emphasis a little 
too soon, "Zach'cheus." ' 

" 'Zach-che'us,' 'Zach-che'us,' said Moody trying the 
word to his ear; and then added, 'I guess I'd better stick 
to the old way.' He measured himself aright; as he did 
a good many others." 

"The charm of his character," says Mr. Meyer, "was 
his thorough naturalness. Perhaps it was this that car- 
ried him so triumphantly through his career. That a 
matter had always been dealt with in a certain way was 
no reason why he should follow the beaten track. On 
the contrary, it was a reason for striking out with some 
novel and unconventional method. He was perfectly 
unmoved by the quotation of established precedent; ut- 
terly indifferent to the question as to whether the course 
he proposed would bring praise or blame. When he 
had mastered all the difficulties of a problem, he would 
set himself to its solution by the exercise of his own 
sanctified tact and common sense. There was no limit 
to his inventiveness, his rapid appreciation of the diffi- 
culties of a situation, or his naive solutions. I have often 
compared his method of handling a perplexity with his 
driving, for he always went straight before him., over 
hedges, and mounds, up hill-sides, through streams, 
down dykes, over plowed fields. The last day I was 
with him at Northfield, he drove me from the Confer- 
ence Hall over ground so irregular and uneven that 
every moment I expected we should be overturned. But 
we came out all right, at the gate we wanted, and it was 
certainly the shortest cut. So it was always with him." 

In personal work he exhibited remarkable insight and 
sympathy, though the yearning of his heart was often 



198 Dwight L. Moody. 

obscured by a blunt manner. One or two anecdotes may 
serve to illustrate this side of his life-work. 

"An infidel came the other day to one of our meet- 
ings," he says in one of his sermons, "and when I talked 
with him, he replied that he didn't believe one-twelfth 
part of the Bible, but I kept on quoting Scripture, feel- 
ing that if the man didn't believe, God could do what 
he chose with his Word, and make it quick and powerful, 
and sharper than a two-edged sword. The man kept 
saying that he did not believe what the Bible said, and I 
kept on quoting passage after passage of Scripture; and 
the man, who, two hours before, had entered the hall an 
infidel, went out of it a converted man; and a short time 
after his conversion he left the city for Boston, a Chris- 
tian, to join his family in Europe. Before this gentle- 
man went away, I asked him if he believed the Bible, and 
his reply was; 'From back to back, every word of it.' " 

In another sermon, he says, "I remember when on the 
Northside, I tried to reach a family time and again, and 
failed. One night in the meeting, I noticed one of the 
little boys of that family. He hadn't come for any good, 
however; he was sticking pins in the backs of the other 
boys. I thought if I could get hold of him it would do 
good. I used always to go to the door and shake hands 
with the boys, and when I got to the door and saw this 
little boy coming out, I shook hands with him, and 
patted him on the head, and said I was glad to see him, 
and hoped he would come again. He hung his head and 
went awav The next night, however, he came back, 
and he behaved better than he did the previous night. 
He came two or three times after, and then asked us to 
pray for him that he might become a Christian. That 
was a happy night for me. He became a Christian and 



Methods of Work. 199 

a good one. One night I saw him weeping. I won- 
dered if his old temper had got hold of him again, and 
when he got up I wondered what he was going to say. 
'I wish you would pray for my mother/ he said. When 
the meeting was over I went to him and asked, 'Have 
you ever spoken to your mother or tried to pray with 
her?' 'Well, you know, Mr. Moody,' he replied, 'I never 
had an opportunity; she don't believe, and won't hear 
me.' 'Now,' I said, 'I want you to talk to your mother 
to-night.' For years I had been trying to reach her and 
couldn't do it. 

"So I urged him to talk to her that night, and I said 
'I will pray for you both.' When he got to the sitting- 
room he found some people there, and he sat waiting for 
an opportunity, when his mother said it was time for 
him to go to bed. He went to the door undecided. He 
took a step, stopped, and turned around, and hesitated 
for a minute, and then ran to his mother and threw his 
arms around her neck, and buried his face in her bosom. 
'What is the matter?' she asked — she thought he was 
sick. Between his sobs he told his mother how for five 
weeks he had wanted to be a Christian; how he had 
stopped swearing; how he was trying to be obedient to 
her, and how happy he would be if she would be a Chris-* 
tian, and then went off to bed. She sat for a few min-. 
utes, but couldn't stand it, and went up to his room. 
When she got to the door she heard him weeping and 
praying, 'Oh, God, convert my dear mother.' She came 
down again, but couldn't sleep that night. Next day 
she told the boy to go and ask Mr. Moody to come over 
and see her. He called at my place of business — I was 
in business then — and I went over as quick as I could. 
I found her sitting in a rocking-chair weeping. 'Mr. 



200 Dwight L. Moody. 

Moody/ she said, 'I want to become a Christian.' 'What 
has brought that change over you, I thought you didn't 
believe in it?' Then she told me how her boy had 
come to her, and how she hadn't slept any all night, and 
how her sins loomed up before her like a dark mountain. 
The next Sunday that boy came and led that mother 
into the Sabbath School, and she became a Christian 
worker." 

Moody never asked a man his denomination, and 
throughout his career he was distinguished for his beau- 
tiful catholicity of spirit. Some years ago, while he was 
preaching in a New England city, which was conspic- 
uous for its affiliation with the American Protective As- 
sociation, a secret order which had for its avowed pur- 
pose antagonism to anything calculated to promote the 
interest of the Roman Catholic Church, he was asked 
when he intended to preach against the Catholics. 

"Just as soon as all of the Protestants are converted, " 
he answered. 

In an account of the Baltimore meeting, Mr. Daniels 
tells an amusing story of Moody's efforts, in the role of 
music-director. He had dismissed Mr. Sankey to Eng- 
land, and was making a brave effort to> take his place. 
One night he appeared at one of the services for men 
half an hour before the time, and avowed his intention 
of showing them how to sing — a statement altogether 
incompatible, it would seem, with the fact that he never 
could sing a tune in his life. 

His first call was for the best singers to come up on 
the platform by his side: and he was very quick in find- 
ing out who they were. 

"Here, James Robinson, up there in the gallery," he 
would say, "come down and help me sing. There is a 



Methods of Work. 201 

man here who tells me you are a good singer." And the 
man thus invited would make all haste to the platform. 
A few more calls sufficed to give him the number he 
wanted for his "choir," and then he said: 

"Now everybody sing. I am going to be chorister 
myself, and I want you to do your very best for my 
sake." 

Finding the supply of singing books to be inadequate, 
he dispatched a messenger to buy out the entire stock of 
No. 3's of a neighboring bookseller, and when the books 
arrived he commenced to toss them to the boys all over 
the house, the scene becoming quite exciting as twenty 
or thirty hands reached out to catch each book as it 
fluttered through the air, aimed at the head of some man 
whom he happened to know was able to use it. 

When the books were distributed the singing school 
was ready to begin. His main reliance was the choir, 
whom he directed to sing all the solos; and then, for the 
better advancement of his great class, he divided it into 
three portions, thus: "Right gallery," "Left gallery," 
and "Floor." 

"Now, my men, you can all sing, 'Are Your Windows 
Open Toward Jerusalem?' and I am going to see who 
can sing it best. The choir will sing the solo, and we 
will all join in the chorus. Let every man sing. If you 
can't sing the words, say them; it'll do you good. Say 
them now after me," and the master recited the words 
of the chorus several times over, the men shouting them 
back to him till the ice was thoroughly broken, and then 
the choir was directed to strike up. 

It can hardly be said that Mr. Moody is an adept in 
the art of beating time, but he has the instinct to stop 
when he finds he is altogether out of the measure, and 



202 Dwight L. Moody. 

wait for an easier place in the music, when he begins to 
wag his head and wave his hand again, much to the en- 
joyment of his audience. 

"That'll never do," he would break out. "Why, I can 
sing better than that myself," at which there was an in- 
credulous laugb all over the house. "Come, now, sing 
louder, sing louder, men! Here, let the galleries sing 
the chorus along with me and the choir, while the floor 
keeps still." 

This was done. 

"Now let the floor sing and the galleries listen," and 
the floor sings; of course better — that is, louder — than 
the galleries, upon which the leader remarks: 

"There, they beat us. We must try it over again." 
And so on, and so on. 

Thus this great leader, by the use of his shrewd com- 
mon sense, without knowing a note of music, or being 
able to sing a single strain, was able to* teach a singing 
school in a way that was very effective, as well as in a 
way that was wholly his own. 




XIV. 
MOODY AS AN EDUCATOR. 

HEN Moody returned from England he real- 
ized that the hand of the Lord had been laid 
upon him, and that under that hand he was 
destined to go hither and thither doing the 
Lord's work unto the end. Naturally he began to look 
about for a place to which he could repair at intervals 
for a brief respite from his labors, and as naturally his 
thoughts turned towards the place of his birth and the 
home of his mother. He had now labored as an evan- 
gelist for thirteen years and had laid up nothing. He 
had not only taken no thought for the morrow, but he 
had refused to allow his friends to take thought for him, 
except for his immediate expenses. At last, however, 
realizing that he was being severely criticised for his ap- 
parent indifference to the future welfare of his loved 
ones, he yielded to the earnest solicitations of his friends 
and accepted a sum of money sufficient to buy a com- 
fortable home in Northfield that his wife and children 
"might have a roof over their heads" when he was gone. 
He had hardly settled his family in Northfield — or to 
be exact, East Northfield — when his habit of looking 
for work to do asserted itself, and he began to think of 
the needs of his neighbors. While driving out one day 
he noticed two women — a mother and daughter — sit- 
ting in the door of a miserable hut, braiding straw for a 
hat. "What a narrow life that poor girl has before her," 
he said to himself as he drove on ; and immediately there 
was born in his heart a determination to do something 

(203) 



204 Dwight L. Moody. 

to secure better things for the large class which the poor 
girl represented. He had always lamented the defi- 
ciencies of his own education, and his experience as an 
evangelist had taught him that men must not only be 
called from the ways of sin, but must be trained men- 
tally as well as spiritually for God's service. It cannot 
be said that he had any conception at this time of the 
vast educational system which he was destined to in- 
augurate. Indeed, he seems to have begun without any 
definite plans except to provide from day to day for the 
immediate needs of his own community. First, he 
gathered together a few of the poorer children of the 
neighborhood and taught them in his own house. When 
his little school had grown to twenty pupils he built an 
addition to his house for its accommodation. Later a 
small brick dormitory was erected across the street. 
This soon became overcrowded, but he was obliged to 
feel his way along. About this time a large hillside farm 
near the old homestead in which his mother lived was 
offered for sale. This was bought and Moody at once 
began to plan a seminary for girls. He was now joined 
by a most sympathetic and efficient coadjutor in the per- 
son of Mr. Marshall, a retired Boston merchant, who 
having been led to consecrate himself and his property 
to God, and feeling a strong personal attachment for 
the evangelist, concluded to move to Northfield and as- 
sist him in his seminary project. 

The first building, known as East Hall, was erected 
in 1879. The situation of this building is more com- 
manding than that of any of the subsequent structures. 
"From the eminence on which it stands, the view to the 
west and north is superb. The foreground is the east- 
tern slope of the Connecticut Valley; the river itself 



Moody as an Educator. 207 

gleams at intervals throughout many miles of its winding 
course. The western slope of the valley, partly wooded, 
rises gently and culminates in a range of verdure- 
crowned hills. In the direction of Vermont the range 
of vision is almost unlimited ; the color of the landscape 
changes gradually from bright green to pale and still 
paler blue, until at last the actual horizon becomes indis- 
tinguishable as mountain peaks melt into hazy sky/' 

East Hall is constructed of brick and granite, with 
towers on each end, and has a delightful porch which is 
reached by a long but easy flight of granite stairs. It 
cost nearly forty thousand dollars. Within a year this 
building was crowded, and Moody began to realize the 
economic advantage of conducting the operations of the 
seminary upon a larger scale. The expense to the in- 
stitution for each student was then about one hundred 
and sixty dollars a year, and he estimated that with an- 
other large dormitory the cost could be considerably re- 
duced. He mentioned the matter to a few friends just 
before starting on his second evangelistic tour of Great 
Britain, which* consumed the greater part of three years. 
In his absence the heirs of the estate of Mr. Frederick 
Marquand undertook the erection of the much-needed 
dormitory, and in 1884 it was completed at a cost of 
about sixty-seven thousand dollars. It is a beautiful 
structure. On the granite arch over the porch is in- 
scribed, "Frederick Marquand Memorial Hall, 1884." 
During this year Stone Hall was built. This hall was 
used for religious meetings during the summer vacations 
until the great Auditorium was built several years later. 
The Talcott Library was built in 1888. It is of granite, 
and was the gift of James Talcott of New York. It con- 
tains, in addition to the library, a delightful reading- 



2oS Dwight L. Moody. 

room and an office. This building cost twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars. Weston Hall was completed in 1887, at 
a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars. This building 
was given by Mr. Weston, a sugar magnate, who also 
presented Moody with fifty thousand dollars to be ex- 
pended for his schools as he saw fit. The Skinner Gymna- 
sium, which is perfect in all its appointments, was the gift 
of Mr. William Skinner, a silk manufacturer of Holyoke, 
and cost not far from twenty-five thousand dollars. The 
Betsy Moody Cottage is a frame structure of neat ap- 
pearance, used as a hospital, although it is said its ca- 
pacity for this sort of work has never been severely 
taxed. It was erected in 1892, and is named in honor of 
Moody's mother. Two smaller dormitories are situated 
on the Winchester road — Hillside Cottage and Maple 
Lodge. Near them is the large barn which is a necessary 
structure for the seminary acres. A farmer's boy who 
had hoed corn, Moody never lost his knack for farming, 
or at least his interest in it, and the seminary farm al- 
ways received his most careful personal attention. 
Nearly two hundred acres of the six hundred owned by 
the seminary are under cultivation for the special use of 
the institution. All the vegetables, milk and cream are 
supplied by this farm ; and here all the pork and the best 
part of the beef are raised. The farm owns sixty cows 
and twenty-four horses, with hens and chickens, the 
crowing of which, a newspaper reporter has declared, 
would arouse an army to battle. These latter were 
Moody's pets. A barn replacing one struck by lightning 
a few years ago is one of the finest in its arrangements 
in a county noted for its skillful and educated farmers. 
While the farm is, of course, in charge of an overseer, 
Moody when at home kept his hand on everything, and 



Moody as an Educator. 209 

was sometimes seen driving over the place as early as 
four o'clock in the morning. He looked after the 
finances of the farm, and his employes declared him to 
be a prompt paymaster, fair and just to all. And, as 
they used to say, "He loves our little 'uns too." 

In addition to the Seminary buildings, there is the 
Hotel "Northfield," which in summer is occupied by vis- 
itors. In winter it is used as a training school where 
thirty or forty girls are given instruction, not only in re- 
ligious training, but in housework of every description. 
This hotel is controlled by a corporation having a capital 
stock of one hundred thousand dollars. Not a drop of 
liquor, nor a piece of tobacco in any form, has ever been 
sold in the hotel. "With these exceptions," says a re- 
porter, "it is provided with every creature comfort." 

Another building at East Northfield is the Auditorium, 
which has a seating capacity of thirty-five hundred 
people. The Congregational Church is situated midway 
between Northfield and East Northfield. It is a hand- 
some structure, for which the community is indebted 
mainly, it is said, to Mr. Moody. 

In 1879, when the seminary for girls was just getting 
under way, a valuable farm across the river about four 
miles distant was purchased at a very low figure by 
Moody and several of his friends, with the hope that the 
way would be opened to utilize it for a boys' school on 
which he had set his heart. The following year the late 
Hiram Camp of Connecticut visited Northfield, and 
learning of Moody's project, gave him twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars to get the school under way. An adjoining 
farm was then secured, and with two other purchases, 
two hundred and eighty-five acres of land and two large 
farm houses came into possession of the school. This 
14 



210 D wight L. Moody. 

noble tract has been since enlarged until the school now 
stands in the centre of a tract of more than four hundred 
acres in extent, beautifully diversified by grassy slopes 
to the river and the hill on which the buildings stand. 
The first boy made his appearance at this school May 4, 
1 88 1. In 1883 a row of brick cottages was started, and 
when Moody returned from England in June he brought 
with him twelve boys who occupied the first of the cot- 
tages to be completed. This first class graduated in 1887. 
The next year the school opened with an attendance of 
two hundred and seventy-four, and since then it has 
had more applications for admission than it has had 
room to accommodate. It now has nearly five hundred 
students, and is kept open the entire year practically 
without vacation. This school which is known as Mt. 
Hermon is a unique institution. It was founded for poor 
boys who could not elsewhere obtain an education. Such 
boys are drawn there from all over the world, and last 
year there were represented in the school nineteen differ- 
ent nationalities. The school is unique in that no en- 
trance examinations are required, and in that every stu- 
dent is obliged to work two hours a day on the farm or 
in some other department. The standard of scholarship 
is high, and graduates are admitted to many leading col- 
leges on the principal's certificate. A vigorous Young 
Men's Christian Association is maintained, and there are 
in addition to the usual literary societies a good govern- 
ment club formed for the purpose of studying questions 
of government and making good citizens. The build- 
ings occupy a commanding position on the banks of the 
Connecticut River. The view which greets the visitor 
to Mt. Hermon is that of a hilltop crowned with a row 
of cottages which is flanked by the great Crossley Hall, 



Moody as an Educator. 213 

which is filled with two hundred students, and a taste- 
ful dining-house to which "the youths with appetites 
sharpened by required exercise on the farm regularly re- 
pair." Across the campus is the recitation hall, and 
down by the roadside the two cheerful farm houses 
''turned to uses their owners never guessed." Over the 
way there is a barn, a great structure with its generous 
herds and gathered crops. Near by is the new science 
building, the gift of Mr. H. D. Silliman of New York, 
which is surmounted by an observatory. And there is 
the Moody Chapel, built from a fund which was in- 
tended to be a personal gift to Mr. Moody. 

Besides these, there is the splendid Overton Hall, the 
gift of J. Campbell White (Lord Overton) of England. 
Both the Moody Chapel and Overton Hall are new build- 
ings, having been completed within a year. The corner- 
stone of Overton Hall was laid two years ago by Miss 
Helen Gould. This hall is the outcome of a letter which 
Moody wrote to Lord Overton, in which he said that 
he had been informed by the principal of the school that 
a hundred more boys were needed to carry on the farm 
and that there was no place for them to sleep. Lord 
Overton's reply to the letter was in the form of a check 
for twenty-five thousand dollars. 

Neither the seminary for girls nor the school for boys 
has ever been self-supporting, Moody having insisted 
from the start that the tuition and board for the school 
year should be placed at about one hundred dollars, 
which is little more than one-half the actual cost. The 
annual deficiency has been made up by friends and by 
the royalties from the sale of Gospel Hymns and Moody's 
books. 

In his educational work Moody exhibited a remark- 



214 Dwight L. Moody. 

able amount of common-sense. This work, says the 
editor of a leading paper, has made evident his perfect 
sanity. Every step that has been taken in enlarging the 
work has been carried out according to plain, common- 
sense principles. For example, he recognized very early 
that it was essential to have a fine hotel where wealthy 
Christians could be well fed. The result was one of the 
most pleasant summer resorts in the land. Here many 
people of wealth and refinement spend the summer. As 
some one has said, Moody recognized the fact that con- 
tributions could be best obtained from people when their 
stomachs were comfortably filled, and the hotel has 
proved an excellent investment. Here the Earl of Aber- 
deen, his Countess and many other English notables have 
been entertained. 

Many interesting stories have been told in connection 
with Moody's educational work in Northfield which 
strikingly illustrate the everyday side of the man. On 
one occasion he is said to have needed a sum of money — 
five or ten thousand dollars — for his Mt. Hermon school, 
and he sat down and wrote to a man in a distant city to 
send him a check. He knew that no human influence 
could be brought to bear to induce this man to give him 
the amount asked for, and therefore before the letter was 
sent he took it to his room, placed it on a chair, and 
kneeling by it prayed over it. The letter reached the 
man while he was at breakfast. He read it, and ex- 
claimed, "Preposterous !" and threw it aside. But some- 
thing moved him to read it again. Then he read it the 
third time; and finally he went to his library and sat 
down and wrote the check and sent it. In his letter he 
explained the circumstances, and said he made haste to 
write before going to his office for fear he might change 
his mind. 



Moody as an Educator. 21 g 

Moody was at his best at the commencement exer- 
cises of his schools. It was his custom as soon as the 
diplomas were passed around to announce that refresh- 
ments would be served, and everybody was invited to the 
serving-room. He would then lead the way and assist 
the boys and girls in bringing out refreshments and serv- 
ing them to the guests — never taking a mouthful him- 
self until the smallest urchin was satisfied. 

One day one of the seminary trustees left a meeting 
of the Board and was driving away, when Moody raised 
the window and calling to him asked if he would give one 
thousand dollars to the work if he himself would do the 
same. "All right!" came the answer, and Moody closed 
the window. As he turned around he remarked that he 
did not have a thousand dollars, but that he would raise it 
in some way. Thereupon one of the trustees remarked 
that he thought it a somewhat irregular proceeding. 
"Oh, yes !" Moody replied, "but we do everything up 
here different from other people." 

Some years ago when the Northfield girls were hold- 
ing their first commencement exercises in the old Con- 
gregational Church, Moody was delayed at the railroad 
station. When he arrived at the church he found the 
auditorium crowded and the principal standing at the 
door with an anxious look upon her face. "What is the 
matter?" he asked. "Why, Mr. Moody, we have been 
waiting for you to lead in prayer." "Waiting for me!" 
he exclaimed. "When it is time to begin a meeting never 
wait for any one, no matter who he is. Start with what 
you have ; no man is big enough to keep a religious meet- 
ing waiting." 

In the course of an address delivered one afternoon at 
Mt. Hermon, Moody referred to a wooded elevation as 



216 Dwight L. Moody. 

"Temptation Point." One of the trustees remarked that 
he had never heard the spot called by that name before. 

"Neither have I," the speaker replied. 

"Why did you hit upon such a name as that?" came 
the inquiry. 

"Oh!" said Mr. Moody, "because I thought that some 
day some one might be tempted to erect a chapel for us 
on that point." 

His wish has since been gratified, for a beautiful stone 
chapel now adorns the little hill. 

In 1880 he issued a call to Christian workers every- 
where to hold a ten-days' convention at Northfield. This 
was the beginning of the Northfield summer conferences 
which have become such a prominent feature in the re- 
ligious world of to-day. The first summer the meeting 
was held in a tent pitched on the seminary grounds. 
Under this canopy meetings of the most thrilling charac- 
ter were held. When the exercises came to a close, "it 
seemed as if the windows of heaven were opened and in 
each waiting soul there was even more of the Spirit than 
he felt able to bear." The results of these meetings were 
soon apparent when the delegates who came from all 
parts of the world had returned to their respective 
spheres of labor. In 1881 the convention met especially 
for Bible study and continued in session thirty days. 
During the three summers following, Moody was absent 
in England and no meetings were held; but in 1885 he 
issued another call, and from that time Northfield has 
been the Mecca to which multitudes of Christian workers 
from many lands have made their annual pilgrimage. 
The influence of these conferences can never be com- 
puted. Among those who have attended them have been 
missionaries from every clime, students in preparation 



Moody as an Educator. 217 

for foreign fields, evangelists, eminent clergymen, editors 
of metropolitan newspapers, city missionaries and Sun- 
day School workers, and it is safe to say that few have 
come away without having received a great spiritual im- 
pulse. 

Still another educational enterprise was evolved from 
Moody's fertile brain. Almost from the beginning of 
his evangelistic career he had been impressed with the 
fact that an enormous amount of energy was running to 
waste in the church which might be turned to real ser- 
vice in the preaching of the Gospel. Something he felt 
was needed which would not interfere with the work of 
the theological seminaries and yet would provide sys- 
tematic and thorough Biblical instruction, and that train- 
ing in practical evangelistic methods which was needed 
by many earnest but inexperienced young men and 
women. As his experience widened, he realized more 
and more the increasing demand for consecrated men 
and women schooled in the knowledge and use of the 
Bible and familiar with aggressive methods of work to 
act as pastors' assistants, city missionaries, Sunday 
School missionaries, evangelists, Bible readers, and in 
various other fields of Christian activity both at home 
and abroad. It was his habit when he discovered a press- 
ing need to begin at once to look for ways and means to 
meet it. His first step was to hold an institute for Bible 
study in Chicago as an experiment. The first session 
lasted but a few weeks. This was followed by others 
of longer duration. It was a success from the start and 
Moody soon decided to organize the work on a perma- 
nent basis. Ground adjoining the Chicage Avenue 
Church was purchased with buildings which were fitted 
up for a Ladies' Department and a building for the 



218 Dwight L. Moody. 

Men's Department was erected. The Institute began its 
regular work in October, 1889, under the superinten- 
dency of the Rev. R. A. Torrey. "One great purpose we 
have in view in the Bible Institute," said Moody, "is to 
raise up men and women who will be willing to lay their 
lives alongside of the laboring class and the poor and 
bring the Gospel to bear upon their lives." The method 
of training adopted by the Institute is admirably adapted 
to this special object. Study and work are happily com- 
bined. Several days of each week are devoted to actual 
work in the homes of the people, in cottage meetings, 
missionary meetings, tent meetings, inquiry meetings, 
children's meetings and industrial schools, the object 
being to teach students not only the theory of work, but 
also the work itself. The Institute has always acted on 
the principle that the best way to learn how to do a thing 
is to do it. Only those are admitted into the Institute 
who give some evidence of burning zeal and devotion 
to the cause of Christ, and every effort is made in 
giving them the necessary training to maintain their 
spiritual warmth. All the students reside in the Insti- 
tute under the eye of the superintendent. At night the 
men go out to the most sunken and degraded parts of 
the city and hold meetings in many halls and tents under 
the guidance of skilled evangelists. Sometimes these 
young men come back flushed with success and some- 
times baffled. Then they get together and have a talk 
about notable experiences — of hairbreadth escapes, per- 
haps, or of some notable thief humbled at the foot of 
the cross. The Institute has fairly won its place at the 
front of Christian training schools, "standing out among 
all other institutions with a distinct, strong individuality 
— a powerful Christian agency 'come to the kingdom 
for such a time as this,' " 




MOODY IN THE PULPIT-A CHARACTERISTIC ATTITUDE. 



Moody as an Educator. 221 

Mr. Torrey, the superintendent, is a graduate of Yale 
Theological Seminary. During his last year in the Semi- 
nary he worked for six weeks in the inquiry room in 
Moody's meetings in New Haven, where he acquired a 
love for the work of winning souls. After graduation 
he entered the ministry, but in 1882 resigned his charge 
to study in Germany. Oh returning home he accepted 
a pastorate in Minneapolis. Here he passed through a 
deep spiritual experience in which God was evidently 
training him for future service. Realizing his need he 
declared that he could not preach again until filled with 
the power of the Holy Spirit. After days of heart- 
searching and prayer he believed himself to have received 
an endowment of power such as he had never before 
known. About this time Moody offered him the super- 
intendency of the Bible Institute, and feeling the call to 
be of God, he at once entered upon its duties. 

Writing to a London paper of the work of the Insti- 
tute, Henry Varley, the English evangelist, says : "I ques- 
tion whether the energy, ability, devotedness, and unity 
of hearts which exist here have ever been exceeded. As 
the waters in Ezekiel's vision flowed out, so here literally 
truth, zeal, and energy for God and man pour forth from 
nigh two hundred living springs. The impress of the 
beloved leader marks the majority of the students, and 
Mr. Moody appears to have engraved, under God, upon 
these young men and women who for more than four 
months have carried on this great and holy war, the 
motto, 'Out and out for Christ/ What a training for the 
Gospel ministry!" 




XV. 

THE WORLD'S FAIR CAMPAIGN. 

N the autumn of 1878 it was announced by the 
papers that Moody had taken a house in 
Baltimore for his family with the intention 
of devoting himself to study. It was also 
stated that he was in need of rest and that if he should 
do any evangelistic work at all, it would be on a very 
small scale. Moody had been in Baltimore but a few 
weeks, however, when he called together some of the 
leading members of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation and other Christian workers and proposed to 
them to hold a series of meetings to be conducted in the 
principal churches in the city. From the first almost 
the entire ministry and membership of the Baltimore 
churches were in full accord with the movement and it 
soon became evident that no church was large enough 
to hold the crowds. This experiment of covering the 
city by many small meetings held in the churches was so 
successful that Moody decided to adopt the method for 
the future, and during the remaining years of his evan- 
gelistic career a "tabernacle" meeting was an exception. 
From the close of his memorable tour of the leading 
cities of the country until his death, his time was divided 
mainly between evangelistic labors of the type I have 
just mentioned, educational enterprises, and prison 
work. In 1881 he visited Great Britain, where he re- 
mained three years engaged in evangelistic efforts. In 
1 89 1 he made his last tour of Great Britain, returning 
in May, 1893. On reaching home he immediately called 

(222) 



The World j s Fair Campaign. 22g 

together a number of leading Christian workers and un- 
folded to them a plan which he had carried on his heart 
through all his trip abroad. Like other good Amer- 
icans he had been thinking of the World's Fair, but with 
this difference, that while other Americans were think- 
ing how they could make the Fair redound to the glory 
of America, he was planning how tb make it redound 
to the glory of God. He realized that the Fair would 
attract millions of people out of every nation under 
heaven, and his heart yearned with desire to make it an 
opportunity for the kingdom of God by having the 
Gospel preached to the multitudes of all nations who 
should come. During his trip abroad he bad been plan- 
ning the campaign and engaging the services of eminent 
evangelists, and when he returned home he entered 
upon the work with all the confidence of a man who had 
seen the finger of God pointing out the way. He not 
only felt called to the work, but he was under a solemn 
vow to undertake it. Of this vow Moody himself ha$ 
told us a touching story: 

"Just as I was preparing to leave London," he says, 
"the last time I was there, I called upon a celebrated 
physician and he told me that my heart was weakening 
and that I had to let up on my work, and that I should 
be more careful of myself; and I was going home with' 
tlhe thought that I would not work quite so hard. I was 
on the steamer "Spree," and when the announcement 
came that the vessel was sinking, and we were there, 
forty-eight hours in a helpless condition, no one will 
ever know what I passed through, as I thought that my 
work was finished, and that I would never again have 
the privilege of preaching the Gospel of the Son of God. 
But that dark night, the first night of the accident, I 
15 



226 Dwight L. Moody. 

made a vow that if God would spare my life and bring" 
me back to America, I would come back to Chicago, 
and at this World's Fair preach the Gospel with all the 
power that he would give me; and God has enabled me 
to keep that vow during the past five months. It seemed 
as if 1 went to the very gates of heaven during those 
forty-eight hours on the sinking ship, and God permitted 
me to come back and preach Christ a little longer." 

His zeal for the Lord at this time almost consumed 
him. At Northfield and Mount Hermon, he gathered 
the teachers and students together at six o'clock in the 
morning to seek the anointing of the Holy Spirit and 
pray for the campaign that was about to open. "If you 
think anything of me," said he, with choking voice and 
tear-filled eyes, "If you have any regard for me, if you 
love me, pray for me that God may anoint me for the 
work in Chicago. I want to be filled with the 
Spirit that I may preach the Gospel as I never preached 
it before. We want to see the salvation of God as we 
have never seen it before." 

During the first two weeks of the meeting Moody was 
occupied in fully maturing and developing his plans. 
The city was laid out in three large sections; in each of 
these sections a church was secured as a centre where a 
force was rallied for the meetings every night in the 
week and several times on Sunday. These centres were 
soon found to be insufficient and many other churches 
had to be called into use. "Then," to quote Dr. Torrey, 
"we made an assault upon the theatres." The Haymar- 
ket Theatre, which holds 3,500 people, was first secured, 
but it would not hold the crowd. Then the Empire 
Theatre across the way was rented; then the Standard, 
three blocks away; tfhen the Columbia Theatre; then the 



The World's Fair Campaign. 227 

Music Hall; then the Hooley Opera House; then the 
Grand Opera House, and several other theatres. Every 
Sunday services were held in at least six theatres in addi- 
tion to the churches. This was only a beginning. To 
accommodate the multitudes around the Fair grounds 
several large buildings were rented. Then the "Model 
Sunday School" building was secured; then the Ep- 
worth Hotel; then the Christian Endeavor Tabernacle; 
then the theatre; these not being enough five tents were 
erected. At last it became evident that no amount of 
accommodation would be sufficient for the crowds that 
wanted to attend the meetings, and so open-air services 
were appointed to be held in every part of the city. 
"Now," says Dr. Torrey, "we thought as long as the 
whole world was going to Chicago, we ought to try to 
reach all nations, and so we sent over to Germany for 
Dr. Stoecker, the famous preacher, to come over and 
preach to the Germans; then we got a preacher from 
the Swedes to preach to 1,500 of them nightly. We sent 
to Paris for a preacher to preach to the French, and one 
of our own students preached to the Bohemians, so we 
reached all these different nations by the preaching of 
the Gospel." 

Never in the history of the world was such a time 
known in religious circles as that through which Chi- 
cago passed during the World's Fair season. "From 
the farthest suburbs," said a Chicago paper at the close 
of the campaign, "to the centre of civic life, to the most 
beautiful quarters, among the most magnificent boule- 
vards and to the slums of our city, the effect of this 
movement has been felt. But Chicago is not the only 
place to be benefited by this wonderful work. The hun- 
dreds of thousands which thronged these great gather- 



228 Dwight L. Moody. 

ings came from every land on earth. Every State in the 
great Republic sent a host of representatives. Return- 
ing to their homes over the whole wide world, they have 
taken with them the influences of the lessons to which 
they have listened, the songs they have heard, and the 
enthusiasm here inspired. 

"To sum up the results of such a work is impossible 
for man. It cannot be measured in time, for eternity 
alone can tell, and God alone knows how many hun- 
dreds of thousands of hearts have been and will be 
reached." 

The extraordinary generalship which Moody dis- 
played throughout the campaign was a revelation even 
to many of those who knew him best. Much, however, 
might be said in behalf of his magnificent army of co- 
workers, which included many of the most eminent 
preachers and evangelists in the world. Perhaps the 
most effective work was done by our own men, Dr. 
Chapman, Dr. A. C. Dixon, Major Whittle, Dr. Torrey, 
and that plain, blunt man of the people, Ferdinand 
Schiverea, and a host of others. Among the laymen 
who aided in the work was young Lord Bennett, of 
England, who was converted while reading one of 
Moody's sermons in his own home at Chillingham 
Castle. 

One of the most successful meetings was held in Fore- 
paugh's circus tent, which had a seating capacity of 
fifteen thousand. It was estimated that nearly twenty 
thousand persons came to the circus to hear the Word 
of God. "It was a terribly hot day," says Dr. Torrey, 
"and it seemed as if we would all die before the service 
was over; but there that great crowd of men and women 
sat and stood beneath the overheated canvas, the per- 




o a 



The World's Fair Campaign. 231 

spiration rolling down their faces, and listened to the 
Gospel. Among those brought to Christ on that morn- 
ing was an actor, a man who had made a wreck of his 
life through strong drink. A large number of men and 
their wives were brought to Christ. Some people from 
the very highest classes of society were converted. For 
example, among the young men converted is one of 
whom I will tell you. A certain business man who has 
business interests in Chicago, who gives us thousands of 
dollars every year for our work, and has given us several 
thousand dollars this year, had an unconverted son. He 
was deeply interested in him. This boy came to Chi- 
cago and came to our meetings in Haymarket Theatre. 
One night at the close of the service he walked up on to 
the stage, took Mr. Moody by the hand, and told him he 
had accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour. That father 
thinks he has invested his thousands well." 

In concluding a review of the campaign the writer 
whom I have just quoted says: "If you were to ask me 
what I thought was the great secret of this marvelous 
success, I would say it was this: that the leaders in this 
movement looked up to God to give the victory and ex- 
pected him to do it and he did it. We were disappointed 
in men. Some of the men whom we expected the most 
of we got the least out of, and some of the men we ex- 
pected least out of we got the most out of. But we were 
never disappointed in God. He helped us all along the 
line. He helped us in getting the blessing in the meet- 
ings, he helped us in overcoming obstacles, and he 
helped us in getting the money we needed. I do not 
know how many thousands of dollars it cost. We are 
figuring that up now. I presume they know now, but 
they did not know when I left Chicago; but, friends, 



232 Dwight L. Moody. 

it was in answer to prayer that money came. I do not 
mean that people were not asked to give, because they 
were asked to give all over this country, and they did 
give most generously; but time and time again we got 
into a corner and there was no man to go to, and we 
went to God, who brought us out of our difficulty. Let 
me give you a single illustration of that. It was in Au- 
gust. Mr. Moody had to go East. It was near the 10th 
of the month. We pay part of our bills on the 1st of the 
month and part on the 10th. Four thousand dollars had 
to be paid on the 10th of that month. Mr. Moody was 
to go away in a clay or two, and there was no money 
to pay it. We did not know what to do. Mr. Moody 
gathered some of us together, the inner circle of work- 
ers, at the dinner-table in his room. A great burden was 
upon his heart. H'e did not know where the money 
was to come from. I do not think he was discouraged; 
but I think he was as near discouraged as I ever saw him 
in my life. We sat down at that table. Just before we 
were seated a letter came enclosing an English letter of 
credit for nearly a thousand dollars. Tlhere was a prayer 
going up from the heart of Mr. Moody and from the 
hearts of two or three others who knew of the dilemma 
we were in. As we sat at that dinner-table a man c'ame 
in with a telegram. He took it to Mr. Moody. Mr. 
Moody opened the telegram and then passed it down 
to me. That telegram read: 'Your friends at Northfield 
have given to-iday as a free-will offering six thousand 
dollars for your work in Chicago, and there is more to 
follow.' Four thousand dollars more did follow, ten 
thousand in all. Friends, need I tell you we did not 
finish that meal? We pushed back with one accord from 
the table, and knelt by our chairs, and with tears and 



The World's Fair Campaign. 233 

sobs lifted our hearts in gratitude to God. He had heard 
our cry, and while we were yet speaking had answered 
our prayer. And so it was all this summer. Men often 
failed us, difficulties often came, but we had one Friend 
that always stood by us, and when money ran short, 
when the meetings grew dull, when obstacles came up 
and doors seemed closed, we went alone with God and 
we looked up to God for 'his blessing and for his power, 
and God heard us every time. The money came and the 
obstacles went, and, best of all, the Spirit of God came 
down." 




XVI. 
ABUNDANT IN LABORS. 

N his younger days Moody expended a vast 
amount of energy looking for work to do; 
but with increasing years came increasing 
labors, until in the latter part of his life he 
carried enough burdens to overwhelm a dozen ordinary 
men. Although it was repeatedly stated that he was 
about to retire from the evangelistic field, he remained 
in it until the end. He was always carrying on his heart 
some great city which he longed to win for Christ. This 
one passion was enough to consume the strength of 
most men. His schools were always on his shoulders, 
and he was -continually organizing a campaign, or build- 
ing something, or planning something, or collecting 
money for something, or publishing something. No 
one, not even Moody himself, ever knew how much 
money he raised by personal appeals for special enter- 
prises outside of his own schools, which annually re- 
quired a large amount. He built the Illinois Street 
Church in Chicago, and the Chicago Avenue Church, 
which grew out of it; he erected the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association building of that city, and when it was 
burned he built another, and when that was burned he 
built a third. He raised money for Association build- 
ings in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, 
Baltimore, Scranton, Richmond and many other cities. 
He erected more than twenty buildings at Northfield, 
and several Institute buildings in Chicago. He raised 
money for Christian Union buildings in Dublin, the 

(234) 




STONE HALL. 




HILLSIDE COTTAGE. 
Moody's First School Building at Northfield. 



Abundant in Labors. 237 

Christian Institute building in Glasgow, Carubber's 
Close Mission in Edinburgh, the Conference Hall, Strat- 
ford, Down Lodge Hall, Wansworth, London, and an 
Association building at Liverpool. 

He found time for farming; he found time to take 
hold of every great enterprise that needed his leadership. 
The Army and Navy Commission, which was organized 
when the war with Spain broke out, lay very near to his 
heart, and an enormous amount of the detail work of 
the Commission was thrust upon him. In this enter- 
prise he raised a large sum of money, which was wisely 
expended. He was interested in the Students' Volun- 
teer movement, and he undertook mission work of vari- 
ous kinds in this and foreign countries. He took 
thought for the Indian work, the temperance work, 
fresh air funds* — indeed, for every sort of Christian ac- 
tivity that came to his mind; and amid all these labors 
he found time to look up the poor, the afflicted, the 
needy of every sort. He would lay down everything 
and go miles to see a depraved wretch whom everybody 
had given up as a hopeless case. He was never too busy 
to look up an infidel carpenter to tell him that Jesus was 
a carpenter. Great as he was, full of labors as he was, 
he did not wait for poor sinners to come to him — he went 
to them. 

He loved to visit prisons, where, by the way, he was 
always sure of a warm welcome. The convicts used to 
cheer him when he would preach to them, and he knew 
many of them by name. He was always using his influ- 
ence for the pardon of some penitent criminal. One of 
his best stories is an account of one of his visits to the 
New York City prison. 

"I have good news to tell you," he would say. 



238 Dwight L. Moody. 

"Christ is come after you. I was at the Fulton-street 
prayer-meeting a good many years ago, one Saturday 
night, and when the meeting was over a man came to 
me and said, 'I would like to have you go down to the 
city prison to-morrow and preach to the prisoners.' I 
said I would be very glad to go. There was no chapel 
in connection with that prison, and I was to preach to 
them in their cells. I had to stand at a little iron railing 
and talk down a great narrow passage-way to some three 
or four hundred of them, I suppose, all out of sight. It 
was very difficult work; I never preached to the bare 
walls before. When it was over I thought I would like 
to see to whom I had been preaching and how they had 
received the Gospel. I went to the first door, where the 
inmates could have heard me best, and looked in at a 
little window and there were some men playing cards. 
I suppose they had been playing all the while. 'How is 
it with you here?' I said. 'Well, stranger, we don't want 
you to get a bad idea of us. False witnesses swore a lie, 
and that is how we are here.' 'Oh,' I said, 'Christ can- 
not save anybody here; there is nobody lost.' I went to 
the next cell. 'Well, friend, how is it t with you?' 'Oh,' 
said the prisoner, 'the man that did the deed looked very 
much like me, so they caught me, and I am here.' He 
was innocent, too! I passed along to the next cell: 
'How is it with you?' 'Well, we got into bad company, 
and the man that did it got clear, and we got taken up, 
but we never did anything. I went along to the next cell. 
'How is it with you?' 'Our trial comes on next week, 
but they have nothing against us, and we'll get free.' I 
went round to nearly every cell, but the answer was 
always the same — they had never done anything. Why, 
I never saw so many innocent men together in my life. 



Abundant in Labors. 239 

There was nobody to blame but the magistrates, ac- 
cording to their way of it. These men were wrapping 
their filthy rags of self-righteousness about them. And 
that has been the story for six thousand years. I got dis- 
couraged as I went through the prison, on and on and 
on, cell after cell, and every man had an excuse. If he 
hadn't one the devil helped him to make one. I had 
got almost through the prison, when I came to a cell 
and found a man with his elbows on his knees and his 
head in his hands. Two little streams of tears were run- 
ning down his cheeks; they did not come by drops that 
time. 

" 'What's the trouble,' I said. He looked up, the 
picture of remorse and despair. 'Oh, my sins are more 
than I can bear.' 'Thank God for that,' I replied. 
'What,' said he, 'you are the man that has been preach- 
ing to us, ain't you?' 'Yes.' T think you said you were 
a friend?' T am.' 'And yet you are glad that my sins 
are more than I can bear.' T will explain,' I said. 'If 
your sins are more than you can bear, won't you cast 
them on One who will bear them for you?' 'Who's 
that?' 'The Lord Jesus.' 'He won't bear my sins.' 
'Why not?' T have sinned against him all my life.' T 
don't care if you have; the blood of Jesus Christ, God's 
Son, cleanses from all sin.' Then I told him how 
Christ had come to seek and save that which was lost; 
to open the prison doors and set the captives free. It 
was like a cup of refreshment to find a man who believed 
he was lost, so I stood there and held up a crucified 
Saviour to him. 'Christ was delivered for our offences, 
died for our sins, rose again for our justification.' For 
a long time the man could not believe that such a miser- 
able wretch could be saved. He went on to enumerate 



240 Dwight L. Moody. 

his sins, and I told him that the blood of Christ could 
cover them all. After I had talked with him, I said, 
'Now let us pray.' He got down on his knees inside the 
cell and I got down outside, and I said, 'You pray.' 
'Why,' he said, 'it would be blasphemy for me to call on 
God.' 'You call on God,' I said. He knelt down and like 
the poor publican he lifted up his voice and said, 'God 
be merciful to me a vile wretch.' I put my hand 
through the window, and as I shook hands with him a 
tear fell on my hand that burned down into my soul. It 
was a tear of repentance. He believed he was lost. 
Then I tried to get him to believe that Christ had come 
to save him. I left him still in darkness. 'I will be 
at the hotel,' I said, 'between nine and ten o'clock, and I 
will pray for you.' Next morning I felt so much inter- 
ested that I thought I must see him before I went back 
to Chicago. No sooner had my eye lighted on his face 
than I saw that remorse and despair had fled away, and 
his countenance was beaming with celestial light; the 
tears of joy had come into his eyes, and the tears of de- 
spair were gone. The Sun of Righteousness has broken 
out across his path; his soul was leaping within him for 
joy; he had received Christ, as Zaccheus did — joyfully. 
'Tell me about it/ I said. 'Well, I do not know what 
time it was; I think it was about midnight. I had been 
in distress a long time, when all at once my great burden 
fell off, and now I believe I am the happiest man in New 
York.' I think he was the happiest man I saw from the 
time I left Chicago till I got back again. His face was 
lighted up with the light that comes from the celestial 
hills. I bade him good-bye, and I expect to meet him in 
another world." 

In the night watches, as he expressed it, there came 




EAST HALL. 




WESTON HALL, NORTHFIELD SEMINARY. 



Abundant in Labors. 243 

before him the vision of the chain gang, the prison, 
and the army of prisoners within, with no wholesome 
reading or helpful influences. He saw in remote villages 
families destitute of books, or satisfied with meagre dime 
novels or sensational literature. He saw the shelves, of 
other booksellers filled with cheap and poor books sold 
for a trifle to satisfy a depraved taste. To reach the crim- 
inal classes he determined to publish books of a high 
grade, yet interesting and instructive, that could be 
manufactured in good style and placed on the market 
at as low a rate as the poorer books. Hence the "Bible 
Institute Colportage Association," which he established 
three years ago in Chicago, with an eastern branch at 
Northfield. Since the establishment of the Association 
seventy different volumes have been issued. These vol- 
umes have been sold by booksellers in the usual way, and 
by colporters and students, some of whom are enabled 
thereby to pay their board and tuition at the Moody 
schools. The Association is self-supporting, and no 
funds have been solicited for this enterprise. The sales 
of its books have amounted to as many as one hundred 
thousand copies a month, and already two-and-a-half 
millions have been scattered over the land. Many of 
these have gone into the hands of prisoners. Books are 
published in English, German, Danish, Norwegian, and 
Swedish, and it is said that Polish, Bohemian, Dutch, 
and French will be added. One can find them for sale in 
Shanghai, and they are being placed on the fishing-boats 
off Newfoundland. Two scientific gentlemen out col- 
lecting in Zululand, recently sent an order for a, large 
number of copies to be scattered among the traders in 
that far country. Like Spurgeon and other preachers 
of world-wide fame, Moody not only reached a vast mul- 



244 Dwight L. Moody. 

titude with his voice, but he has reached a larger number 
with his published sermons and addresses. He wrote 
about fourteen volumes, which have had a combined 
circulation of more than two millions. Of his "Way to 
God," six hundred thousand have been issued, transla- 
tions having been made in German, Swedish, Danish, 
and Norwegian. A quarter of a million of copies of his 
book on "Heaven" have been scattered over the world. 
The sale of the Gospel Hymns has been almost fabulous. 
Many remarkable stories have been told of souls led 
to Christ through his printed sermons. Valentine Burk, 
a noted thief, while confined in prison at St. Louis, came 
across a paper one day containing a sermon by Moody, 
who was then preaching in that city. The reporter had 
headed it, "How the Jailer at Philippi was Caught." 
Thinking that the article was a story of jail news, and 
supposing that Philippi, Illinois, was meant, he began 
to read it. He soon found his mistake, but for some 
reason, he never knew why, he read on until he had read 
it through. Nine times in the course of the sermon he 
came upon the words of Paul to the frightened jailer, 
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
saved." The words set the man to thinking, and it was 
not long before he became a true penitent, and pledged 
himself to God to be an honest man. When his time 
was up, and he went out into the world, he found the 
usual fate of the ex-convict awaiting him. Nobody 
would give him employment, and after a time he drifted 
to New York; then he drifted back to St. Louis, and 
there the sheriff, in whose custody he had so often been, 
told him he had been shadowing him wherever he 
went, and was convinced that his reformation was real 
The sheriff made him his deputy, and subsequently his 



Abundant in Labors. 245 

treasurer. "The man who had spent twenty of his forty 
years in jail could be trusted when religion changed 
him." In his account of Burk, which he gives in the 
little book, "Crime and Criminals," Moody relates in his 
quaint way how at one time Burk felt that the repulses 
he met with everywhere were caused by his ugly face, 
and prayed the Lord to make him handsome. Whether 
with or without a miracle the reformed man had his wish. 
No one who knew him in his days of sin could have rec- 
ognized him a few years after his conversion without 
being told his name. He had actually become hand- 
some. What made the striking change Burk himself 
best knew. On the back of his picture that had hung in 
the Rogues' Gallery he wrote, "He raiseth up the poor 
out of the dust." 




XVII. 
MOODY AT HOME. 

NE of Moody's favorite illustrations was a 
story of a sick child who, as the shadows of 
death began to gather about him, said to his 
father : "Lift me up, please." The father 
reached down and tenderly took him in his arms. "Lift 
me higher, father;" and he lifted him higher. "Higher," 
pleaded the little fellow faintly, and the father held him 
as high as his arms could reach. Presently the little 
form grew very still; he had been lifted higher. "I be- 
lieve," Moody would say, "that he lifted him into the 
arms of Christ." And then his kindly face would glow, 
and as the tears welled up in his eyes he would say: "I 
would rather have my children say that about me than 
to have a monument of gold that would pierce the 
clouds." 

And he did so live in the presence of his children that 
they could say this very thing of him — he lifted them 
higher. "I don't think," said his eldest son, in the touch- 
ing testimony which he gave at his father's funeral, "I 
don't think he showed up in any way better than when 
on one or two occasions in dealing with us as children, 
with his impulsive nature, he spoke rather sharply. We 
have known him to cor^e to us and say, 'My children,' 
'my son,' 'my daughter,' T spoke quickly; I did wrong; 
I want you to forgive me.' " 

Often in his sermons he gave us unintentional 
glimpses of this side of his heart. "I remember," he 
used to say, "my little girl had a habit of getting up in 

(246) 



Moody at Home. 247 

the morning very cross. I don't know whether your 
children are like that. She used to get up in the morn- 
ing speaking cross, and made the family very uncom- 
fortable. So I took her aside one morning and said to 
her, 'Emma, if you go on in this Avay I shall have to 
correct you; I don't want to do it, but I will have to.' 
She looked at me for a few moments — I had never 
spoken that way to her before — and she went away. She 
behaved herself for a few weeks all right, but one morn- 
ing she was as cross as ever, and when she came to me to 
be kisised before going to school, I wouldn't do. it. Off 
she went to her mother, and said: 'Mamma, papa refused 
to kiss me; I cannot go to school because he won't kiss 
me.' Her mother came in, but she didn't say much. She 
knew the child had been doing wrong. The little one 
went off, and as, she was going downstairs I heard her 
weeping, and it seemed to me as if that child was dearer 
to me than ever she had been before. I went to the 
window and saw her going down the street crying, and 
as I looked on her I couldn't repress my tears. That 
seemed to me the longest day I ever spent in Chicago. 
Before the closing of the school I was at home, and when 
she came in her first words were: 'Papa, won't you for- 
give me?' and I kissed her and she went away singing. 
It was because I loved her that I punished her. My 
friends, don't let Satan make you believe when you have 
any trouble that God does not love you." 

His love for his mother, as I have already said, was 
exceedingly beautiful. He could not pay her too much 
reverence or respect. He always visited her daily when 
in East Northfield, and he took delight in saying that it 
was due to her strength, her no'ble Christian character 
and love that under God he owed his success. The af- 



248 Dwight L. Moody. 

fection which he showed for all his relatives was often 
very touching. When Miss Helen Gould laid the corner- 
stone of Overton Hall, the last dormitory built at Mt. 
Hermon, Moody saw one of his relatives coming toward 
the platform. He turned to his wife and said, so that 
every one on the platform could hear: "There comes 
Aunt Mandy Holton; mamma, make a good place for 
her." And his order was carried out. "Aunt Mandy," 
by the way, was one of his severest critics. 

To those who came to Northfield with no other 
knowledge of Moody than as a man of movements and 
a leader of great enterprises, the domestic side of his 
character was a delightful revelation. It was beautiful 
to see the intense love which he showed for the "quiet- 
ness and delight" — as Mr. Meyer expressed it — " of his 
own immediate family circle." It cost him more than 
the world ever dreamed to leave his home and the de- 
lights of comradeship with those who were nearest to 
him. "If the only motive of his life," says the writer 
whom I have just quoted, "had been that of self-pleas- 
ing, I very much doubt if he would ever have left the 
immediate companionship of wife and children and 
grandchildren. It was the strength of the Christ life 
that sent him forth through all the years and to the end." 

Was it a mere fancy that led so many visitors to say 
that his home seemed to be filled with a holy atmos- 
phere? Certainly, there was something about it which 
made his friends think of heaven. Not that it was a 
melancholy place, or stupid, or mouldy and dark — 
Moody's piety was of too healthy a type for such things. 
He had no fancy for sick-room odors and felt slippers 
in the spiritual life. To him there was a good deal that 
was akin to religion in a healthy laugh and a good romp 



Moody at Home. 249 

with the children. I don't think that any one ever no- 
ticed anything else about the house that was remarkable. 
It was a plain, substantial New England home, with 
plenty of white paint and green blinds, and porches and 
lawns — a good comfortable home — nothing more. It 
satisfied Moody, if it failed to satisfy the critics who in- 
sisted that he had spent a fortune on it. 

A day's life, such as Moody lived during his summers 
at Northfield, would make an exceedingly interesting 
story if the spirit of the man could be breathed into it. 
In bare outlines it differs little from the daily life of 
most men. He was an early riser and loved to be up 
before any one else was stirring about. At five o'clock 
he was in his study, and for two hours he gave himself 
up wholly to the Bible and its Author. It was his cus- 
tom to read the Bible consecutively from beginning to 
end, a method which gave him a comprehensive knowl- 
edge of the Word such as is possessed by few men. He 
did not confine himself, however, to this method. Any 
one meeting him during the day, it is said, would detect 
from his conversation the fact that his morning hours 
had been spent in this way. 

The younger members of the family always looked 
forward to the breakfast hour with pleasure, because at 
the table the great evangelist usually became a boy 
again, and often gave himself up to the pleasant task of 
making fun for the entire household. He would not 
deny himself his little joke even if it had to be made at 
his own expense. He excelled in pleasantries, although 
on occasions he found a match in some younger mem- 
ber of his own family. The story is told that his daugh- 
ter Emma wanted to attend an entertainment which did 
not meet with her father's approval. She went all the 



250 Dwight L. Moody. 

same, and the next morning, when she came into the 
dining-room, Moody said: "Good morning, Satan's 
daughter!" "Good morning, papa!" came the answer, 
quick as a flash. "Who that ever sat about his table," 
says Dr. Chapman, "can forget his laugh; he knew just 
how to put every man at his best." 

Of his prayers at the family altar, Mr. Jacobs says: "I 
think I never heard a man pray who could comprehend 
so much in a few words as he did. His family, his 
schools, his workers and their families, the work in hand, 
missionaries, ministers and all forms of Christian work 
in all places are treated in an incredibly short space of 
time and brevity of speech. You rise from your knees, 
having belted the globe with tender petitions for God's 
care for his own." 

After prayers came his correspondence, which was 
always very heavy. Moody was never able to dictate 
to a stenographer, and this caused him much additional 
hard work. If he could get through with his corre- 
spondence before the heat of the day he would go out for 
a drive, in which he usually combined business with pleas- 
ure. There were the schools to be looked after, and the 
farm, and the sick neighbors, and, as Drummond wrote 
home — "the milk, and the beefsteak for dinner, and so 
on." Perhaps he was never more interesting than he 
was during these morning rides. He knew everybody, 
and everybody knew him, and he was always looking for 
a chance to show his interest in the people he met. "He 
was my friend," said an old man at the funeral. "But 
then," he added, "he was everybody's friend." 

Dr. Morgan has given a charming description of one 
of the rides which he had the privilege of sharing with 
the evangelist during a visit to Northfield. "Suddenly 



Moody at Home. 253 

he pulled up his horse to speak to a group of children. 
'Have you had any apples to-day?' said he. 'No, Mr. 
Moody,' they replied. 'Then go down to my house and 
tell them to give you all you want.' Away they went, 
and so did he, both happier. Down a narrow lane he 
drove next, and through a gate to where a man was at 
work in a field. 'Biglow,' said Mr. Moody, 'it's too hot 
for you to work much: half a day's work for half a day's 
pay, you know, while this heat lasts.' "I sat by his side," 
adds Dr. Morgan, "and watched and began to under- 
stand the greatness of the man whose life was so broad 
that it touched sympathetically all the phases of life." 

Moody was as fond of doing farm-work himself as he 
was of superintending it. The Ladies' Home Journal 
recently published a picture of him taken as he was stand- 
ing knee-deep in the water, engaged in — to use his own 
words — "converting this little pond into a reservoir for 
those houses down in the valley." "But," said the 
friend to whom he spoke, "I thought you converted 
people, not ponds." "Oh, well," he replied, "some 
ponds need conversion just as much as people do. I am 
going to cleanse this one and make a Christian of it." 

Henry Drummond was charmed with Moody as a 
host. He thought him almost as grand helping his 
guests at the table as he was when appealing tO' a house 
full of sinners to give themselves to Christ. Dr. Morgan, 
whom I have just quoted, writes in a similar vein: "Af- 
ter the evening meeting, at his invitation, I saw him in 
a new role — that of the host. He sat in his chair at the 
head of the table and helped the ice cream, directed the 
conversation, and listened with the patience and sim- 
plicity of a child to every word that others spoke. That 
night the talk turned on the most serious subjects, the 



254 Dwight L. Moody. 

inner life of the people of God, and its bearing on the 
work of the churches among the people. As we broke 
up I went to bid him good-bye, as I was to depart by 
an early train on the morrow. 'Oh,' said he, 'I shall see 
you in the morning; and you are to preach at ten 
o'clock.' That was my first notice. What did I do? I 
preached as he bid me, as other and better men have 
ever been glad to do. That was his way. He printed 
no program of the Northfield Conferences. He 
gathered around him a band of teachers and speakers, 
and then as the days moved on he manipulated them ac- 
cording to the necessities of the case. After speaking 
next morning I hurried away, but in that brief stay 
Moody had become more to me. Strong, tender, consid- 
erate, from that day I more than revered him; I loved 
him." 

During the summer he was accustomed to spend his 
evenings quietly at home; but when conducting his 
evangelistic campaigns night brought little rest. "A 
man under such intense mental and physical strain," 
says Mr. Jacobs, "must of course show signs of tem- 
porary exhaustion. This was very often the case when, 
after two or three services a day, he had reached his 
room completely exhausted, but always cheerful and 
alert concerning reports from workers." He seldom ad- 
mitted that he was weary. His workers usually gath- 
ered in his room before retiring, to give reports from 
different parts of the field. In these meetings, which 
were always very informal, the stronger characteristics 
of the man were very vividly brought out. "How eager- 
ly," says the writer whom I have just quoted, "he drinks in 
the report of a successful worker who speaks of gathered 
sheaves for the harvest home. But no less eager when, 



Moody at Home. 255 

after several reports, perhaps there is one who cannot 
speak of a successful meeting and must confess he has 
met with failure. As some worker rises and relates his 
seeming failure or tells of some particularly distressing 
circumstance of some individual with whom he has per- 
sonally dealt, I have seen Mr. Moody's face change from 
joy to deep solicitude and sympathy as his eyes became 
suffused with tears, and with one consent all heads 
bowed, while he commended the work and workers to 
God and especially mentioned this one to him who sees 
all our work and to whom no doubt our successes are 
often signal failure and our failures the highest success.'' 
Fortunately he could sleep at will. It is related that a 
man was admitted to Moody's room one afternoon when 
he returned very weary from a meeting. The evangelist 
quickly realized that his visitor was a fanatic, and en- 
deavored to get rid of him; but the man was entirely 
impervious to hints and so persistent as to be extremely 
annoying. When at last there seemed no hope of es- 
cape, Moody asked permission of his caller to lie down 
while listening, as he was very tired. This just suited 
the stranger, who now felt that he had his victim at his 
mercy. But his exultation soon changed to dismay, for 
Moody's regular, deep breathing presently showed that 
he was in a state in which ordinary mortals are invincible 
to argument. 




XVIII. 

THE MAN HIMSELF. 

GLANCE at the man would not have led one 
to the conclusion that he was in the presence 
of one of the most famous men of our time. 
There was nothing extraordinary about his 
appearance — at least, when he was in repose. Indeed, 
to many the first impression he gave was that of a 
rugged, uneducated man to whom fortune had been kind 
but had not greatly improved. At a second glance, how- 
ever, there was, as some one has said, "an indefinable 
something discovered that calls to mind the Village 
Blacksmith." As one studied his face there would spring 
from the rugged features a surprising light of intelli- 
gence. His magnetism was extraordinary, and no one 
who talked with him could resist it. "It is one thing 
to feel the magnetism of the man whose words stream 
at you from the pulpit; it is a very different matter to 
sit face to face with him and feel that magnetism scin- 
tillating about you and making it seem as if the air it- 
self were filled with electricity of the mental sort." On 
first meeting him one would be apt to say to himself : 
"Where in the world did he get his reputation?" After 
one had talked with him a little while the impression 
would grow upon him that whatever the man's educa- 
tion he was certainly not of ordinary mould. 

"As he sat in his chair at the hotel the other evening," 
said a New York reporter, "discussing his plans and his 
hopes, he looked the picture of the prosperous farmer 
who is paying a visit to the city and believes the business 

(256) 



The Man Himself. 257 

situation of a pleasing nature. A loosely-fitting business 
suit of dark blue was his very unfashionable attire. He 
was guiltless of a linen shirt, and in place of a collar a 
handkerchief was knotted about his neck. His feet were 
encased in felt slippers, and above them showed almost 
brilliantly the white stockings that one so seldom sees 
on the feet of a man nowadays. 

"His rugged face twinkled, his eyes fairly shot fire, 
and his iron-gray hair and beard quivered in all direc- 
tions as he talked about what was in existence and what 
ought to happen. 'I'm no deep thought man,' he said, 
Tm just one of the people, and I talk to them from their 
own standpoint. It's no way to get people to be good to 
lecture them ; no way at all. The man that talks to con- 
gregations from a deep thought basis will get the twen- 
tieth man ; but, mind you, I get the other nineteen. I say I 
get them ; I don't mean that. The man who gets them is 
he who talks from the standpoint of humanity.' " 

I am not sure that Moody said these very words, but 
that may pass. I am sure, however, that a great deal 
of his bluntness was nothing more than a quick-working 
mind having its way. Moody did not think in circles 
or in angles ; his mind fairly shot at things. He reached 
his conclusions by short cuts, and as a consequence he 
often ran over rugged places, and we know it is given 
to few men to run over rugged places very gracefully. 
When others were just beginning to realize a difficulty, 
Moody was just discovering the way out of it. The con- 
ference of college men that annually gathered at North- 
field was greatly perturbed one afternoon by a drowning 
accident in the Connecticut River. The evangelist im- 
mediately stopped the service and led the young men to 
the river to assist in the work of recovering the body. 
17 



258 Dwight L. Moody. 

One man stated that it would be possible to look far 
down into the water if a piece of window-glass were 
fixed at one end of a long narrow box, so that it could be 
pushed into the water and used as a telescope. Moody 
turned to one of his farm men and asked him to go to 
the house and get a box and a piece of glass that could 
be fitted into it. 

"There's no glass at the house," was the reply. 

"Then take a pane out of the front door or a window," 
was Moody's order. 

"Who but Moody," asks Mr. Meyer, "would have 
taken the rough-and-ready way of testing a man's or- 
thodoxy by asking him if he thought the whale had swal- 
lowed Jonah ! To my certain knowledge he subjected two 
doctors of divinity at least to this crucial test before ad- 
mitting them to his platform at Northfield. There was 
no finesse, no 'beating about the bush' in his dealings 
with questions. You always knew where to find him. 
If he could not untie knots he would cut them." 

But it is the heart rather than the head that gives 
the truest measure of a man. "If you were to ask me," 
says Dr. Chapman, "what most impresses me in his daily 
life, I would answer, his unconscious humility and the 
utter absence of selfishness." He had been honored 
above degree ; his name had become a household word in 
all Christian nations; his sermons were read around the 
world; he had been entertained in palaces of royalty, 
and yet "his daily life was the personification of child- 
like humility." Mr. Meyer says that in all the number- 
less hours he spent with him he never once manifested 
the least sign of affectation; never drew attention to him- 
self; never alluded to the vast numbers that had at- 
tended his meetings, the distinguished, persons who had 



The Man Himself. 259 

confided their secrets to him, or the enterprises which, 
like the Student Volunteer movement, had originated in 
his suggestion, or been cradled under his care. It seemed 
as though he had never heard of D. L. Moody, and 
he knew less of his doings than the most ordinary reader 
of the daily press. "Not unfrequently I said to myself, 
when in his company, 'Is this the man who can gather 
and hold at his will ten thousand people by the month 
together in any of the great cities of the world ?' ' 

A story that he often told about himself strikingly 
illustrates the humility of the man. "I found myself in 
Chicago a few years ago," he would say, "getting jealous 
of a prominent clergyman. I found that I was generat- 
ing much feeling about him. I said to myself, 'Moody, 
this won't do.' I went to him and told him that at a 
certain time I wanted him to take charge of a large meet- 
ing. He said he'd come. Then I took pains to see that 
he would have a tremendously large audience. He 
preached a fine sermon. He came to me and said kind 
words. Since then we have been great friends." Moody 
was already famous, and his name was dear to Christian 
workers the world over when he first met "Uncle" 
Johnnie Vassar, the noted lay evangelist. Dr. Trumbull 
relates how a friend to whom both were dear introduced 
them as they met on the street. 

"Uncle Johnnie, this is dear Moody ; and, Moody, this 
is dear Uncle Johnnie Vassar." 

Uncle Johnnie's face glowed with even more than 
wonted lustre as he grasped Moody's hand and looked 
into his speaking face, while saying heartily : 

"And so this is dear Brother Moody! How glad I 
am to see the man that God has used to win so many 
souls to Christ!" 



260 Dwight L. Moody. 

"You say rightly, Uncle John, 'the man whom God has 
used,' " said Moody earnestly ; and as he stooped down 
and took up a handful of earth at his feet, he poured out 
the dust, and added, ik There's nothing more than that of 
Dwight Moody, except as God uses him." 

The basis of his character was sincerity. He was 
thoroughly genuine, and he believed in genuineness. He 
had an inveterate aversion to every form of sham or 
pretence. Many who were drawn to Northfield by cu- 
riosity would listen to Moody and to no one else, because 
they could not help admiring him for his rugged hon- 
esty and sturdy independence of character. Some one 
has said that Moody was never charged with hypocrisy. 
No one who heard him could but be impressed with his 
sincerity of purpose and the directness of his aim in 
presenting his message. 

Perhaps his most conspicuous trait — certainly it was 
his most useful — was his consideration for others. If 
Bunyan had written his name in his book it would have 
been "Thoughtful Soul." He had a passion for doing 
considerate things. He was never satisfied unless he was 
doing something to show his interest in his fellow-men. 
He was especially kind to those whose position in life 
made kindness almost a stranger. Said a newspaper re- 
porter, "Mr. Moody always had somewhere in that big 
heart of his a warm spot for reporters. He always 
treated them kindly, and was very much interested in 
their work, often making inquiry as to how they were 
getting along, what line of reporting they liked best, and 
so on. Many a time I have sat at the table, and taken 
notes on one of Mr*. Moody's addresses, and after the 
meeting was over he would lean over and ask : 'Well, did 
you have any. difficulty in taking clown the sermon to- 



The Man Himself. 261 

day?' On other occasions he has suddenly discovered 
that the reporters were not joining with the audience in 
singing. Between the verses of the song he would say: 
'Why aren't you reporters singing? Everybody has to 
sing at these meetings.' With this remark, or with one 
of a similar nature, he would come forward and pass his 
own hymnal to the reporters." 

One morning Moody rose somewhat earlier than was 
his custom, in order to study and prepare an address for 
the morning session of the students' conference. He 
went to the window and looked out to see what the in- 
dications were for a pleasant day. As he did so, he saw 
trudging down the street a student carrying a heavy 
valise. It was evident that the young man was on his 
way to the station to catch the early morning train. "I 
started in to read my Bible," said Moody, in speaking 
of it afterwards, "but somehow I could not fasten my 
attention to the book. I could see before me as I read 
that young man trudging along with that heavy box. 
Perhaps he gave the quarter it would have cost him to 
ride to the station to the collection taken up at my request 
the day previous. Yes, and he has nearly two miles 
to walk. Surely that box must be heavy. I could not 
stand it longer. I went to the barn, hurriedly hitched 
up my horse, overtook the young man and carried him 
and his baggage to the station. When I returned to the 
house I had no further difficulty fixing my attention on 
the subject I was studying." 

Several years ago at one of the early conferences, 
there were two newspaper correspondents who sent their 
news letters by a train that left South Hermon about five 
o'clock in the morning. The letters were taken to the 
station by two Mt. Hermon students, who were obliged 



262 Dwight L. Moody. 

to get up shortly after four o'clock in order to catch the 
train. The boys were always prompt, and one of the 
newspaper men asked them how they managed it. 

''Oh, D. L. wakes us up," they replied. It afterwards 
transpired that Moody slept with an alarm clock almost 
directly at his ear, and took the trouble each morning to 
arouse the messengers. 

His love for little children was very beautiful. It has 
often been said that he was never happier than when 
playing on the floor with his little ones. And almost 
every one who ever heard him preach will remember how 
he w r ould ease the mind of a mother who was worried 
over her crying infant, by saying: "That's right; bring 
the children. They are never too young to learn of 
Christ." Mr. Meyer says that the most pathetic revelation 
of the man was made to him on his last visit to Northfield, 
"when all through the long summer days his little grand- 
child, whom he loved passionately, was dying, swinging 
in her hammock in the garden, or borne on his heart as 
he drove slowly about among the lovely scenes of that 
locality. Again and again he asked me to beg the people 
not to express their sympathy when they met him, lest it 
should break him down altogether. And how the strong 
frame would shake with convulsive sobs as we prayed 
that her life might be spared. God, however, knew bet- 
ter, and took the little one home that she might be there 
in time to greet the strong:, true nature that loved her 
so sincerely, when in turn his servant was called to enter 
his reward." 




XIX. 

THE TRIUMPHANT END. 

T had been known for several years that 
Moody was troubled with weakness of the 
heart. He had been advised by a London 
physician of his 'condition and had there- 
upon resolved to diminish his pace; but it was as much 
against his nature to hold himself down, as it was to be 
held down, and he presently returned to his work with 
almost superhuman energy as if bent upon making the 
most of the few years remaining to him. On his sixtieth 
birthday, his friends throughout the world presented 
him with thirty thousand dollars and urged him to retire 
from active work. He accepted the money for the use 
of his schools, and said, "You are very kind, but I must 
keep on. It would make my head hang with shame to 
give up the fight as long as I can preach." 

And he did keep on. In the early part of November, 
1899, his passion for soul- winning led him to Kansas 
City. To a friend whom he met on the way he said, 
"Oh! if I could only get hold of one great city in the 
East before I die." His zeal was consuming him. He 
seems to have had a presentiment that it was his last op- 
portunity, and he brought to the work all the power he 
could summon. His strength had been phenomenal, 
but it was at last overtaxed. On the evening of the 16th 
of November he preached with extraordinary power to 
an audience of fifteen thousand persons. Next morning 
his heart became alarmingly weak, and at the request 
of his physician he canceled his engagements and re+- 

(263) 



264 Dwight L. Moody. 

turned home. He rallied for a time, and there was hope 
of his recovery, but in a few weeks a change came for 
the worse and he gradually declined until the 226. of 
December, when he quietly passed away. 

Early in the morning of the last day he realized the 
approach of the end. Suddenly he opened his eyes and 
exclaimed, "Earth is receding; heaven is opening; God 
is calling." His oldest son said to him, "Oh! no, father; 
you have only been dreaming." "No," he replied, "I 
am in the gates. I have seen Irene and [mentioning the 
names of his grandchildren]. This is God's call." The 
household was hastily summoned, and as the loved ones 
gathered about his bed, he said, "No pain; no valley. 
Is this death? This isn't bad; it's sweet; this is bliss." 
Later he said, "This is my coronation day, and I have 
been looking forward to it for years." His wife seemed 
on the point of breaking down and he said to* her, 
"Mamma, you were always afraid of sudden surprises; 
brace yourself." His children sat about his bed to re- 
ceive his dying message. He said, "I have always been 
an ambitious man — not ambitious to lay up wealth, you 
understand — but to leave you work to do." Then he 
added, "I think it is time that I had made my will now. 
Will, you may have the Mt. Hermon school to look 
after. Paul, you may have the Seminary, when you are 
fitted for it. Emma, you and Percy [her husband] take 
care of the Bible Institute in Chicago." - 

"Oh! father; we can't spare you," cried his weeping 
daughter, as she threw herself down beside him. He 
looked at her for a moment in silence ; then he said, gen- 
tly, "I am not going to throw my life away. If God has 
more work for me to do, I will not die." Several times 
his lips moved as though in prayer, but the words could 




VIEWS FROM ROUNDTOP, WHERE MOODY WAS BURIED. 



The Triumphant End. 267 

not be heard by the family, who were now gathered about 
him. A little before noon he aroused as if from partial 
slumber to consciousness and recognized those around 
him. In the brief moments which remained, he spoke 
comforting words to the weeping family and declared 
anew his absolute confidence in God, and his faith in 
Christ as his Saviour. His last breath was as one 
breathing in a peaceful sleep. 

"Here," says Dr. Buckley, "was no 'leap in the dark,' 
no 'setting sail on an unknown sea,' no muttering, 'To 
be, or not to be,' no 'Death is a pall.' But there was the 
'evidence of things not seen,' 'the substance of things 
hoped for,' a stingless death, a grave robbed of its vic- 
tory. Thus fully was D. L. Moody persuaded that 
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, was able to 
separate him from the love of God, which was in Christ 
Jesus his Lord." 

The death of a sovereign could not have stirred the 
heart of the world more profoundly. From every quar- 
ter telegrams of sympathy came pouring in, and a mul- 
titude of America's most eminent Christian workers 
hastened to Northfield to attend the funeral. He was 
buried, not as one who had fallen, but as a conqueror. 
There was no hearse, no tolling of bells, no funeral 
music, no crepe, no veils and no outbursts of grief. Lov- 
ing hands bore the casket to the church, and members 
of the family manifested their faith in the Christian doc- 
trine which strips death of its terrors by joining in the 
songs of the service. 

"We are met, dear friends," said Dr. Scofield, "not to 
mourn a defeat, but to celebrate a triumph. He walked 



268 Dwight L. Moody. 

with God, and he was not, for God took him. There in 
the West, in the presence of great audiences of twelve 
thousand of his fellow men, God spoke to him to lay it 
all down and come home. He would have planned it 
so. This is not the place, nor am I the man to present a 
study of the life and. character of Dwight L. Moody. 
No one will ever question that we are to-day laying in 
the kindly bosom of the earth the mortal body of a great 
man. 

"Whether we measure greatness by character, by 
qualities of intellect, or by things done, Dwight L. 
Moody must be accounted great. 

"The basis of Mr. Moody's character was sincerity, 
genuineness. He had an inveterate aversion to all forms 
of sham, unreality, and pretences. Most of all did he 
detest religious pretence, cant. 

"Along with this fundamental quality Mr. Moody 
cherished a great love of righteousness. His first ques- 
tion concerning any proposed action was, Ts it right?' 
but these two qualities necessarily at the bottom of all 
noble characters were in him suffused and transfigured 
by divine grace. Besides all this, Mr. Moody was in a 
wonderful degree brave, magnanimous and unselfish. 
Doubtless this unlettered New England country boy be- 
came what he was by the grace of God. 

"The secret of Dwight L. Moody's power lay: First, 
in a definite experience of Christ's saving grace. He had 
passed out of death into life, and he knew it. Secondly, 
Mr. Moody believed in the divine authority of the 
Scriptures. The Bible was to him the Word of God, and 
he made it resound as such in the consciences of men. 

"Thirdly, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit, and 
knew that he was. It was to him as definite an experi- 
ence as his conversion. 



The Triumphant End. 269 

"Fourthly, he was a man of prayer. He believed in a 
living and unfettered God. 

"But, fifthly, Mr. Moody believed in work, in ceaseless 
effort, in wise provision, in the power of organization, of 
publicity. I like to think of Dwight L. Moody in 
heaven. I like to think of him with his Lord, and with 
Elijah, Daniel, Paul, Augustine, Luther, Wesley and 
Finney. 

"Farewell, for a little time, Great Heart, may a double 
portion of , the Spirit be vouchsafed to us who remain." 

Dr. Torrey said: "How much the conversion of that 
boy in Boston forty-three years ago meant to the world 
no man can tell; but it was all God's grace that did it. 
God's love and grace were magnified again in the devel- 
opment of that character that has made him so loved 
and honored in all lands to-day. He had a strength and 
beauty of character possessed toy but few sons of men; 
but it was all from God. To God alone was it due that 
he differed from other men. 

"The death of Mr. Moody," Dr. Torrey added, "is a 
call to go forward. A call to his children, to his asso- 
ciates, to ministers of the Word everywhere, to the whole 
Church. 'Our leader has fallen, let us give up the work,' 
some would say. Not for a minute. Listen to what 
God says: 'Your leader is fallen, move forward. Moses, 
my servant, is dead; therefore arise, go in and possess 
the land. Be strong and of good courage, be not afraid. 
As I was with D. L. Moody, so I will be with thee. I 
will not fail thee nor forsake thee.' These are the ad- 
monitions we should heed to-day." 

Dr. A. T. Pierson said: "When a great tree falls, you 
know, not only by its branches but by its roots, how 
much soil it drew up as it fell. I know of no other man 



270 Dwight L. Moody. 

who has fallen in this century having so wide a tract of 
uprooting as this man who has just left us. 

"I have been thinking of the four departures during 
the last quarter of a century, of Charles Spurgeon, of 
London; A. J. Gordon, of Boston; Catherine Booth, 
mother of the Salvation Army, and George Muller, of 
Bristol, England, and not one made the world-wide 
commotion in their departure that Dwight L. Moody 
has caused. Dwight L. Moody was a great man. That 
man, when he entered the church in 1856, in Boston, af- 
ter ten months of probation, was told by his pastor that 
he was not a sound believer. That pastor, taking him 
aside, told him he had better keep still in prayer-meet- 
ing. The man the church held out at arm'-s length has 
become the preacher of preachers, the teacher of teach- 
ers, the evangelist of evangelists. It is a most humiliat- 
ing lesson for the church of God. 

"When, in 1858, he decided to give all his time, he 
gave the key to his future. I say everything D. Li 
Moody has touched has been a success. Do you know 
that with careful reckoning he has reached one hundred 
million of people since he first became a Christian ? You 
may take all the years of public service in this land and 
Great Britain; take into consideration all the addresses 
he delivered, and all the audiences of his churches, and 
it will reach 100,000,000. Take into consideration all 
the people his books have reached and the languages 
into which they have been translated; look beyond his 
evangelistic work to the work of education, the schools, 
the Chicago Bible Institute, and the Bible Institute here. 
Scores of people in the world owe their spiritual exist- 
ence to Pwight L. Moody as a means of their consecra- 
tion, 



The Triumphant End. 271 

"No man who has been associated with him in Chris- 
tian work hats not seen that there is 'but one way to live, 
and that way to live wholly for God. The thing that D. 
L. Moody stood for, and will stand for, for centuries to 
come, was his living only for God." 

"Because he held fast to the absolute truth of the 
Bible," said Bishop Mallalieu, "and unequivocably and 
intensely believed it to be the inerrant Word of God; be- 
cause he preached the Gospel rather than talked about 
the Gospel; because he used his mother tongue, the 
terse, clear, ringing, straightforward Saxon; because he 
had the profoundest sense of brotherhood with all poor, 
unfortunate and even outcast people; because he was 
unaffectedly tender and patient with the weak and the 
sinful; because he hated evil as thoroughly as he loved 
goodness; because he knew right well how to lead peni- 
tent souls to the Saviour; because he had the happy art 
of arousing Christian people to a vivid sense of their 
obligations, and inciting them to the performance of their 
duties; because he had in his own soul a conscious joy- 
ous experience of personal salvation, the people flocked 
to his service's, they heard him gladly, they were led to 
Christ, and he came to be prized and honored by all 
denominations, so that to-day all Protestantism recog- 
nizes the fact that he was God's servant, an ambassador 
of Christ, and indeed a chosen vessel to bear the name 
of Jesus to the nations." 

Dr. Chapman said: "Mr. Moody was the dearest friend 
I ever had on earth. 

"When a student in college Mr. Moody found me. I 
had no object in Christ. He pointed me to the hope in 
God; he saw my heart, and I saw his Saviour. 

"When I was a pastor, a preacher without much re/- 



272 Dwight L. Moody. 

suit, one clay Mr. Moody came to me and, with one hand 
on my shoulder and the other on the open Word 
of God, said: 'Young man, you had better get more 
of this into your life.' And when I became an evan- 
gelist myself, in perplexity I would sit at his feet, and 
every perplexity would vanish, just as mist before the 
rising sun." 

When the services at the church were concluded the 
body was taken to Round Top and laid to rest, where 
Moody desired to be buried, and where he had often 
gathered the students and visitors together on a pleasant 
summer evening for prayer and praise. 

"By-and-by," he had said but a few months before, 
"you will hear people say, 'Mr. Moody is dead.' Don't 
you believe a word of it. At that very moment I shall 
be more alive than I am now. I shall then truly begin 
to live. I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of 
the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may 
die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forevero" 




XX. 

AS WE THINK OF HIM. 

HE tributes which were called forth by his 
death would fill a library. Thousands of ad- 
dresses upon his character were delivered 
from the pulpits all over the land, as well as 
in the memorial services which were held in all the large 
towns and cities in Great Britain and America; while 
nearly every newspaper in the English-speaking world 
contained an editorial estimate of his life-work. As I 
sat down to write this chapter, it occurred to me that a 
few pages woven out of single phrases which I had se- 
lected from the tributes which came to my hand, would* 
express perhaps better than any single mind could ex- 
press, the world's estimate of the man. 

He was — I am quoting the words of the world's 
leaders in many departments of life — he was the great 
spiritual luminary of two generations. Considering his 
birth in obscurity and his lack of early promise, he was 
perhaps the most wonderful product of the century. He 
was cast in a large model. A born leader, he had a vast 
fund of old-fashioned common-sense which seldom failed 
to stand him in good stead. Without culture or learn- 
ing such as most preachers of renown have possessed, 
he made a deeper impression on the religious thought 
of the English-speaking world than any of his contem- 
poraries. No man could go to a city and shake the 
strongholds of sin so mightily as he. The people hung 
upon his words because they believed in him, and be- 
cause he was one of them — in strength of character, 

18 (273) 



274 Dwight L. Moody. 

nobility of purpose and outright honesty. He struck 
straight from the shoulder; he dealt sledge-hammer 
blows. He used the elementary powers of oratory; he 
knew profoundly the power of Christ to save. 

There was no cant about him, no stiffness, no cere- 
monialism, no compromise. He gripped the conscience 
with religious vigor; he melted the heart with homely 
pathos; he cut through the outside sham and found the 
manhood in you, if there was any left. He broke 
grammar sometimes, but he also broke human hearts. 
He lived close to God. He had no will but to do God's 
will, and God in consequence empowered him to do his 
will and to do it right royally. He was the greatest soul- 
winner since Whitefield ; though his forte perhaps was 
to stir up and bring to life the flagging columns of the 
Christian church. He was without doubt the most extra- 
ordinary Gospel preacher of this country, as Spurgeon 
was the most extraordinary in Great Britain. He had 
the profoundest sense of brotherhood with all the un- 
fortunate, and all the outcasts. He was infinitely tender 
and patient with the weak and sinful. There have been 
in our time preachers, and many of them, of greater 
eloquence than he, but there never w T as a man among 
them all to equal him in the heart interest which he had 
for humanity. It gave him a hold on men. It was one 
of the secrets of his power to win them. He brightened 
and sweetened hundreds and thousands of lives, both for 
the world that now is and for that which is to come. 
Few men have been more bitterly criticised and ridiculed, 
but no one remembers that he ever spoke bitterly of his 
critics. Many who did not care much for the truths he 
spoke were delighted with the man whose soul was on 
fire and was so anxious for them to think as he thought 




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As We Think of Him. 2J7 

Above all shone his spirit of consecration. He was so 
simple that a child could understand his sermons. And 
he was full of faith — faith in God and in man. Praying 
was' as natural to him as breathing. Some called him 
narrow, but little did they know, if he had used his 
powers in other directions, he might have been as suc- 
cessful as he was in leading them to accept Christ as 
their Saviour. 

One of the potent elements of his success was the spot- 
lessness of his reputation, which is the guarantee of the 
genuineness of his character. Whether in the crucible 
of private criticism or in the glare of publicity, his moral 
and religious constancy were impeachable. It was this 
which gave him even more power in private and personal 
appeals than he had in public. Men instinctively yielded 
to a man whom they intuitively perceived to be what he 
professed to be. In religious experience he had nothing 
new; it was a living faith and a living fire. His good 
sense gave him the impulse to save men, to help them, 
teach them, and convert them. Goodness and service 
were his aims, and the doctrines of his fathers were good 
enough for him. He reached the essentials of rugged 
existence and was impatient of intellectual refinements. 
He carried his message, and whatever men might say of 
the way he carried it, and he got there with it. This was 
the thing that commanded the confidence and respect of 
business men and made them his ready helpers. Tre- 
mendously busy with his life's purpose, he had no time 
to waste, and he never wasted any. 

He was much like the early Christians in his simple, 
sincere faith, in his democratic instincts which led him to 
look upon all men as brothers, and in his unselfish de- 
votion to the cause of Christ. His life has typified the 



278 Dwight L. Moody. 

power of energy, conviction and devotion to a single 
great purpose. Nothing short of an indomitable resolu- 
tion and will-power could have conducted the uncultured, 
uneducated lad from the old shanty in Chicago, where 
he began his work, to the Opera House in London, where 
royalty waited on his words. No one has analyzed his 
power; he was a revelation to himself. Apart from his 
moral worth he was a genius. His one theme was the 
Gospel, but he could have commanded attention on any 
platform. His sermons were plain and few, but when he 
preached them they never failed to captivate and per- 
suade. No one thought to make a suggestion in his 
presence: the ablest thinkers were silent from impulse. 
His presence at a meeting was that of a general on the 
field : things naturally shaped themselves according to 
his will. He was pure business and the incarnation of 
good sense in practical matters. Although alone except 
for the help of God, with no learning except what he 
gained in his stud)^ of Scripture and ceaseless observa- 
tion of character, unassisted by those advantageous cir- 
cumstances upon which others have climbed to promi- 
nence and power, he made his way forward to the front 
rank of his time, and became one of the strongest re- 
ligious factors of the world. 

He will have no successor; but his high courage, his 
trust in God and in the Bible, his love for man, his pas- 
sion for souls, and his deathless zeal will live on for ages 
10 come and continue to thrill the world. More cultured 
men than he may come to the front, and may show them- 
selves by their achievements to be men of power, but few 
can hope in the new century to approach the marvelous 
successes of Moody in the century just closed. All the 
obsequies that may be observed, all the obituaries that 
may be written, and all the monuments that may be built 



As We Think of Him. 279 

to his memory cannot make him dead. He lives in the 
words he uttered ; he lives in the books he has published ; 
he lives in the institutions he established ; he lives in the 
example of fidelity and righteousness and zeal which he 
has set before all the nations. 

Among the tributes which have been paid to Moody's 
greatness I have seen none better than the following from 
the pen of Dr. Trumbull* which I have selected as a 
fitting conclusion to this chapter : 

"That D wight L. Moody was a great man, in the 
strictest sense of the word, is already recognized by very 
many. It will be acknowledged by more and more as the 
years go on, and as he stands out in his true proportions 
in the light of history. As with many another great man, 
Moody's greatness was, while he lived, most readily rec- 
ognized by those of marked ability and discernment. 
It needs but small capacity to distinguish a surface defect 
at any time; it often requires a keen and discriminating 
eye to perceive the beauty and power pervading the 
whole. 

"It was not only, nor even mainly, as a preacher, or as 
an evangelist, that Moody evidenced greatness; yet in 
that sphere, as in many another, his marked superiority 
was more apparent to the superior man than to many a 
man who was of average ability or less. While 'the 
common people heard him gladly,' many an uncommon 
man listened to him with profound interest, and even with 
admiration, and did not hesitate to bear testimony to his 
surpassing power in his personality, and as a preacher. 

"Few preachers or statesmen, if any, in modern times, 
have had and held such hearers, such distinguished 
hearers, as Dwight L. Moody ; and his power to have and 
to hold them continued to the last. One Sunday after- 

* Sunday School Times. 



280 Dwight L. Moody. 

noon in January, 1876, Moody was preaching in Phila- 
delphia in the old depot at Thirteenth and Market streets. 
Among his hearers there sat, on the platform near him, 
the venerable George Bancroft, instructor, author, diplo- 
mat, cabinet officer. He listened with closest interest. 
That afternoon the seats in the body of the house were 
given exclusively to women, in order that- they might be 
sure to find room. When, just before the close of the 
service, Mr. Moody announced that he would that even- 
ing repeat the sermon to men alone, I heard Mr. Bancroft 
ask if he might attend again in the evening, as he would 
much like to hear the discourse a second time. Not many 
clergymen or platform speakers could draw such a hearer 
twice in a day to hear the same address. 

At that same series of meetings Dom Pedro, the last 
Emperor of Brazil, was more than once an interested 
hearer of Mr. Moody's sermons. Dom Pedro was a 
Roman Catholic, George Bancroft was a Unitarian. Both 
were glad to sit, as it were, at Moody's feet, to learn from 
him ; nor were they exceptions in this. 

"Mr. Gladstone more than once attended the services 
conducted in Great Britain by Mr. Moody, and he bore 
testimony to his power in public speech. British peers 
eminent for their ability as well as their station, promi- 
nent prelates of the Church of England, professors and 
divines who had made their impress on the race, were 
glad to hear him and to be his helpers, while recognizing 
his leadership. Year after year, at the summer gather- 
ing of students at Mr. Moody's home in Northfield, there 
were college presidents and professors and distinguished 
pulpit orators from both sides of the ocean ; yet always 
the favorite speaker was Mr. Moody himself. Hundreds 
of the brighter students in the leading colleges and uni- 
versities of Europe and America preferred to hear Mr. 



As We Think of Him. 281 

Moody, as a speaker, above any man whom he had in- 
vited to be there with him, and to whom he modestly 
looked up as better worth the students' hearing. 

Moody's published sermons as reported and printed 
have been translated into various languages, and widely 
circulated in different lands. Some of these have been 
actually preached as original by priests of the Orthodox 
Greek Church in the East, as well as by other preachers, 
to the edification of their Oriental hearers. It is probable 
that no preacher ever lived to address directly by his 
voice so many hearers in so many lands as Dwight L. 
Moody, and this in addition to those reached by him 
through the printed page. And the more he was known 
as a preacher the more he was prized. 

"In the face of such facts as these, it sounded strange 
to hear it said, as one sometimes did, that Mr. Moody 
was not a remarkable or powerful preacher. Such a 
comment was indeed a measure of the critic, but not of 
the preacher. 

"Yet, as I have said, it was not as an evangelist or 
preacher alone that Moody's superiority was recognized 
by those who knew him best. I have had occasion to 
learn their personal estimate of his administrative power, 
his executive ability, his commanding generalship, his 
skill as a financier, and his intellectual superiority, from a 
score or more of men standing high above their fellows 
in one sphere or another, and who were associated with 
him, at one time or another, in movements for the public 
good; and every man of these was unqualified in praise 
of Moody's eminent and surpassing ability where they 
were best able to judge. And this hearty testimony was 
borne, not in eulogy after Moody's death, but while he 
was yet in life and action. 



282 Dwight L. Moody. 

"A good illustration of such testimony was put on 
record by the late Professor Henry Drummond, out of 
his experience and observation and acquaintance, and is 
worthy of repetition. He said, unqualifiedly, 'Moody 
was the biggest human I ever met.' Again, in 1895, 
he wrote : 'Whether estimated by the moral qualities 
which go to the making up of his personal character, or by 
the extent to which he has impressed these upon whole 
communities of men on both sides of the Atlantic, there 
is, perhaps, no more truly great man living than D. L. 
Moody.' 

"Also, 'If Mr. Moody had remained in business, there 
is almost no question that he would have been to-day one 
of the wealthiest men in the United States. His enter- 
prise, his organizing power, his knowledge and manage- 
ment of men, are admitted by friend and foe to be of the 
highest order; while such is his generalship, 
that, had he chosen a military career, he would have, risen 
to the first rank among leaders. One of the merchant 
princes of Britain, the well-known director of one of the 
leargest steamship companies in the world, assured the 
writer lately, that, in the course of a life-long commercial 
experience, he had never met a man with more business 
capacity and sheer executive ability than D. L. Moody.' 

''As to Moody's place among men, in comparative in- 
tellectual power, Professor Drummond makes his own 
the high estimate of Moody given by an 'author of world- 
wide repute, . . . who has met every great con- 
temporary thinker from Carlyle downward,' who says : 
'In sheer brain size, in the raw material of intellect, 
Moody stands among the first three or four great men 
I have ever known.' 

"Is it not a high privilege to have met and known and 
loved such a man as Moody was, and is, and is to be?" 




XXL 
MOODY'S CO-WORKERS. 

O more eloquent tribute was ever paid to 
Moody's manhood than Moody's own ap- 
preciation of men. He believed in men and 
he always had them around him. 

During his evangelistic career he gathered about him 
first and last hundreds of fellow-workmen — men of 
widely varying types, agreeing only in love for God and 
willingness to work. The preachers who submitted them- 
selves to his leadership in the World's Fair campaign 
would have made an army. The teachers whom he 
called to his help in Northneld would have equipped a 
dozen universities. Elsewhere in this volume I have 
given brief sketches of a few of the men who were at 
one time or another associated with him; in this chapter 
I wish to add a few more names which I have chosen to 
indicate how wide was the range from which he selected 
his working companions. 

Perhaps Moody never made a happier discovery for 
his Northfield summer conference than when he found 
the Rev. F. B. Meyer, who has done perhaps as much 
as any other man for the promotion of a deeper spiritual 
life among Christians. 

"There are some ministers," wrote the late Dr. A. J. 
Gordon, "whose church is their parish, and others to 
whom the Lord has given such a cosmopolitan bishopric 
that the world is their parish. Mr. Meyer, by the grace 
of God, enjoys the latter pre-eminence. Christians of 
all names sit under his ministry, and are fed by his evan- 

(283) 



284 Dwight L. Moody. 



gelical pastorate. To Americans he has become especially 
known through his addresses at Northfield, to which 
thousands have listened during his visits to the summer 
conference held there; while to Christians of all lands he 
has become even better known through his admirable 
published writings." 

Mr. Meyer is still in the prime of manhood, his min- 
istry having begun in 1869 in Liverpool. His theological 
training had been acquired at the Regent's Park Col- 
lege, and he had taken his degree of B. A. at London 
University. "Probably," says Dr. Gordon, "he would, 
if questioned, speak of another college from which his 
highest preparation for the ministry has been gained — 
the school of the Holy Spirit, whose tuition it has been 
his especial work to commend to Christians. At all 
events, he has, by the ordering of God, become a teacher 
in that school, leading believers to see the vast impor- 
tance of definite and constant submission to the Para- 
clete who has been sent to lead disciples into all truth. 
In April, 1872, Mr. Meyer became pastor of the Baptist 
Chapel in York; from thence he went to the Victoria 
Road Church, in Leicester. Here he inaugurated a sys- 
tem of aggressive philanthropic work, through which he 
made his influence powerfully felt throughout the entire 
city. 'Philanthropic work,' we say, but the evangelistic 
spirit and method so penetrated this work that it was 
more spiritual than humanitarian ; or, rather, it was hu- 
manitarian in the highest sense, because so deeply spir- 
itual. This enterprise centred in Melbourne Hall, whose 
audience room could seat fourteen hundred people, which 
during the last days of his ministry in that town used 
to be crowded to the doors. The hall became the centre 
of a vast system of evangelical industries — Sunday 




REVELL HALL. 



HOLTON HALL. 




MT. HERMON DORMITORY. 



Moody's Co-Workers. 287 

Schools, open-air missions, prison visitation, temperance 
lectures, foreign missionary meetings, Band of Hope 
and rescue work, industrial schools, etc. It was a noble 
and vast work, and one wonders how Mr. Meyer could 
have disentangled himself from it and accept a call else- 
where. But he did so; and we find him next settled as 
pastor of the Baptist Chapel in Regent's Park, London, 
where he began his work on February 5, 1888. It was 
during the summer of that year that the writer heard 
him for the first time, while attending the Exeter Hall 
Missionary Conference. Going into his chapel on the 
first Lord's day morning after arriving in England, we 
were at once won to him by the clear, simple, fervent and 
richly evangelical tone of his preaching. After much 
acquaintance and fellowship with him in London, we 
listened to him again and repeatedly at the summer con- 
ferences in Northfield. The place which he had already 
won at Keswick and at Mildmay in England as an in- 
structive and stimulating spiritual teacher, he gained in 
America. No one in all the years since those conferences 
began has been listened to with greater interest or profit. 
Mr. Meyer has a rare genius for exposition — for the two- 
fold exposition of the Bible and of the heart. He knows 
how, in a singular degree, to match the word to the life ; 
to find out for his hearers what is in the Bible, and to 
make the Bible find them. What he is as an oral teacher 
he is equally as a writer. He has sent out a large num- 
ber of devotional books and tracts. Mr. Meyer is doing 
much for promoting a deeper spiritual life among Chris- 
tians. His teaching in this direction is wise and well 
balanced, and while strenuously urging Christians for- 
ward to a whole-hearted consecration, he is judiciously 
wise in holding them back from presumptuous profes- 



288 Dwight L. Moody. 

sions. It is an occasion for rejoicing that in handling 
so important a theme he deals with it so wisely; that he 
can inspire fervency of spirit without begetting fanati- 
cism of speech." 

One of the most successful workers in the World's 
Fair campaign was the Rev A. C. Dixon, of Brooklyn. 
Mr. Dixon is a native of Cleveland County, North Caro- 
lina, and comes of a family of preachers. "His father," 
says Dr. Wharton,* "belongs to that great army of 
frontier preachers who follow the plow and use the 
spade during six days, thereby supplementing a meagre 
salary in order that they may bring up their family re- 
spectably and preach the Gospel on the seventh." Young 
Dixon was converted in his eleventh year, and at fifteen 
entered Wake Forest College, from which he was grad- 
uated four years later. He intended to study law, but 
two churches in his neighborhood persuaded him to be- 
come their pastor. In this work he was eminently suc- 
cessful, baptizing about one hundred converts during the 
first nine months of his pastorate. He resigned to take 
a six months' course of systematic theology, after which 
he accepted the pastorate of the Baptist Church at Chapel 
Hill, under the shadow of the North Carolina State Uni- 
versity. During his ministry of three years at this place 
seventy-five of the University students were won by him 
to Christ. From Chapel Hill he went to Asheville, North 
Carolina, where within three months two hundred and' 
fifty persons were brought to Christ. Here he remained 
three years and a half when he accepted a call to the, pas- 
torate of a church in Baltimore. From Baltimore he 
went to Brooklyn where he soon attracted attention and 

* "A Month with Moody." By H. M. Wharton. Baltimore : Wharton & Barron. 



Moody's Co- Workers. 291 

established a national reputation, both as a preacher and 
a writer. 

Mr. Dixon is a man of deep convictions and intense 
zeal. He is wonderfully magnetic as a speaker and vast 
crowds are drawn to hear him wherever he goes. "The 
late Charles H. Spurgeon," says Dr. Wharton, "was cap- 
tivated by him." On meeting him, Mr. Spurgeon eyed 
him carefully from head to foot (he is considerably over 
six feet in height) and said : "You carry things in Amer- 
ica to a great length." 

Another effective worker in the Chicago campaign was 
Ferdinand Schiverea, who began life as an actor in a 
New York variety show. Returning from the theatre 
one night, his mother exclaimed : "Son, I have good news 
for you; you are going to be converted and preach the 
Gospel before I die." Schiverea, with his dissipated 
father in mind, and remembering the accumulation of 
sorrows that had come upon his mother through his 
father's misconduct, thought she had suddenly become 
demented, but he soon concluded that it was his own 
mind rather than hers that was unsettled. He sought 
to recover his former buoyancy of spirits, but in vain; 
conviction had sunk too deep into his heart. While under 
this depression he was led to one of Moody's Gospel 
meetings in Brooklyn where, after a terrible struggle, 
he was powerfully converted. His first impulse was to 
tell his mother. When he found her at home she was 
sitting in her chair asleep. He awoke her with a tender 
caress and told her what God had done for him. The 
dear old woman put her arms about her son and said : 
"I have asked God for this, dear child ; I have given you 
to God, and he has just done what he said he would if 
I only would believe." 



292 Dwight L. Moody. 

Schiverea, like Andrew, began his work for Christ at 
home. His first effort was to lead his own brother to 
Christ. Then he fitted up a small room in his humble 
home and his converted brother went out on the streets 
and invited the people to come to the improvised chapel 
where Schiverea preached to them. Every night for 
months the work went on, constantly growing in num- 
bers and power. 

During this period, and indeed for several years after- 
wards, Schiverea supported his young wife and mother 
by hard manual labor ; but in the intervals of work he gave 
himself to the study of the Bible and to earnest prayer. 
Although devoid of even the rudiments of an education, 
his preaching won large audiences and his first great 
meeting (which was in Brooklyn) continued for twelve 
months. This meeting resulted in the transformation 
of one of the slums of the city into a highly respected 
neighborhood. From Brooklyn he went to many of the 
principal cities and towns of the United States where 
the masses flocked to hear him and his work was abun- 
dantly blessed. He is a plain man for plain people. Dr. 
Wharton says that "although he is a power among the 
common people on the platform, it is in the after meet- 
ings that the man's true power and spirit is manifested. 
Here he at once goes to the heart and life of the sin-sick 
soul; he often puts one of his great strong arms around 
some poor drunkard or fallen man and the other points 
him to the great Burden-bearer of the weary world. By 
the very force of his earnestness and loving pleading 
men break down in an agony of tears and at once take 
the Christ held out." 

Another writer speaking of his work says: "He is a 
simple, unlettered man, ignorant ever in the way of 



Moody's Co- Workers. 293 

scholarly attainments, but he possesses a wonderful 
verbal knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, an intensity 
of earnestness and a plain, pointed, direct way of pre- 
senting truth that carries conviction." 

Dr. Wharton tells some good stories about him. ■ He 
was praying on the street once with a man, both on their 
knees, when some one threw a firecracker in between 
them. It went off and both rolled over, thinking they 
were shot. "Are you killed?" said Schiverea to the pen- 
itent. "No," said he, "but I am scared to death." At 
another time he was holding a meeting in the street, and 
when he knelt to pray he gave his hat to one man and 
his umbrella to another. When the prayer was done the 
hat and umbrella had both disappeared. It is said that 
when he prays now he puts his arm around the neck of 
the man who is holding his hat. 

A zealous workman from abroad, who came to help 
Moody in his Chicago campaign, was the Rev. Thomas 
Spurgeon. Speaking of Spurgeon's early life, an En- 
glish paper says: "The great divine [Charles H. Spur- 
geon] had two children, twin boys, born on September 
20, 1856, in the modest house in the New Kent Road in 
which he began home making. About their earliest 
days there is nothing remarkable to report except their 
training. Mrs. Spurgeon well understood that mysterious 
art which Dr. Adler terms the 'sacred science of child- 
hood.' 'Son Tom' never had very robust health and* 
naturally became 'mother's boy.' 

"Mr. Spurgeon, amid his many engagements, found 
time and opportunity to care for his boys; he would play 
with them with all the zeal of a child and teach them 
with the wisdom of a sage. The favorite pastime was 
riddle-making in which fun was made the minister of 



294 Dwight L. Moody. 

instruction. Upon one of these merry occasions Thomas 
was asked to tell which tree he liked best. 'Yew, father,' 
was the ready reply, indicating affection and mother wit. 
Of these clays, Mr. Charles Spurgeon writes, 'When we 
went through the churches in Paris he seemed to know 
every picture, every tomb. And if we went through old 
ruins of castles, abbeys, and the like, he would tell us 
all about them, for he seemed to us to know everything.' 

"School life at Camden House soon revealed the dis- 
position of 'Son Tom;' he made rapid advances in learn- 
ing and won the affections of his playfellows and tutors 
by his tender, woman-like consideration for others. 

"On Monday, September 20, 1874, a large congrega- 
tion saw Mr. Spurgeon baptize both sons previous to their 
being received into church fellowship. Very soon they 
engaged in religious work, going to the help of a worthy 
workingman, who was conducting mission services in 
his own home at Clapham. Here 'Master Thomas' did 
his ' 'prentice work' in public speaking; the audiences 
became too large for the room and a new chapel was 
erected, mainly by the efforts of the younger Spur- 
geons. During this time Thomas was learning the trade 
of a wood-engraver, in which he displayed special skill." 

At this time the health of young Thomas was so feeble 
that it was decided to send him on a visit to Australia. 
During the voyage he acted as chaplain, conducting di- 
vine service on Sundays. During his visit to Australia 
he made a preaching tour which was attended with great 
success. On his return to London he decided to enter 
the regular ministry, but in 1879 he again went into exile 
in search of health. A church in Auckland sent him a 
call, which was accepted. Here his congregations soon 
grew so large that it became necessary to build a taber- 



Moody's Co- Workers. 295 

nacle, which was designed much like the famous building 
in London. He remained in charge of this church until 
1889, when it became impossible for him to continue the 
work and he accepted an invitation from the Colonial 
Baptist Union to become their traveling evangelist, in 
which position he remained until he was called to Lon- 
don to take his father's place. 

"In the pulpit/' says the paper from which we have 
quoted, "Mr. Spurgeon is most at home; his crisp, nerv- 
ous English goes straight to the heart. The humor 
which peeps out with the modest grace of a. timid child 
vividly recalls the now sainted Spurgeon in his earliest 
days. Indeed, the personality of the father is strongly 
reproduced, especially in the manner of utterance; there 
is an absolute straight-forwardness with his audience, he 
speaks with the emphasis of conviction, and gives the 
impression of a pleader who has nothing to keep back. 
He knows the heart-chords and touches them at will; 
yet always with a tender hand and for a purpose," 




XXII. 
MOODY'S PRAYERS. 

UR Heavenly Father, we thank thee that we 
have come and given our time at this noon- 
tide hour, to pour out our hearts in prayer to 
thee for these requests that have been read 
before us. We pray for these sons and these daughters, 
for these husbands and these fathers, and for these wan- 
derers, and for those who have been brought before us 
to-day. O God, hear our cry, for thy Son's sake, and 
answer our prayer, and the prayers of these dear frends 
for the unsaved. We know how sin has blinded them, 
how Satan has deceived them. We pray thee, O God, 
that thou wilt come and open their eyes, and show them 
their true condition, and plead with them for their salva- 
tion. We pray heaven's blessing to rest on these fathers 
and mothers who have come at this hour to pray, many 
with sad and heavy hearts — hearts burdened for their 
loved ones ; and may they cast their burden on the Lord 
Jesus Christ. Help me, O God, to make known their 
requests unto thee to-day; and while they are praying, 
may the answer come. May these friends for whom they 
are praying be saved. We pray that thy blessing may 
rest on all that was said and sung here and in the pulpits 
of Boston yesterday. May it be sown in good soil and 
spring up and bear fruit abundantly; and may hundreds 
and thousands be turned to them. O Spirit of the Master, 
let thy work go on mightily in this city, and turn many 
from darkness to light. Now we pray that the words 

(296) 



Moody's Prayers. 297 

spoken here yesterday may be remembered. May thy 
word not return to thee void, but accomplish that for 
which thou didst send it. We pray that thy blessing 
may rest upon what was done here yesterday morning 
and afternoon, in the inquiry-room. May those who 
have not found peace find it now ; while they are pouring 
out their hearts in prayer may the answer come, and may 
they be saved and redeemed by the precious blood of 
Christ. We thank thee for that blessed meeting of 
yesterday. Grant that many may rise up in eternity and 
thank God that he has led them to these meetings. Now 
we come to ask a blessing upon the meeting that is to take 
place here to-night. Bless, we pray thee, Mr. Cook, who 
is to preach. May the Spirit of God come upon him 
and anoint him with power from on high; and mayest 
thou give him physical strength and power ; and grant 
that the Spirit may speak through him to-night, that 
many hearts may be broken, and the cry may arise from 
husbands and brothers and friends, "What shall I do to 
be saved?" May the King be with us to-night in the 
camp, and may his presence be felt, and may many be 
drawn to God. Give us wisdom to-night from on high, 
and teach us the way of truth and life as it is seen in 
Christ; and may the work in Boston spread and deepen 
and extend all over New England ; and Christ shall have 
the praise and the glory. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we praise thee for thy blessed 
Word. We thank thee that thy Son didst formerly 
come down into this world ; that he did so use his mighty 
power while on earth that he has power over devils and 
unclean spirits; that he can by a word cast out devils, 
and that he can save our sons and daughters, can 



298 Dwight L. Moody. 

save our children, can save our unsaved friends. O 
God, increase our faith to-day! O God, we pray that 
thou wilt come down upon this town with the 
power of thy word, and that we may have strong 
faith in thee and thy promises. We pray thee that if any 
evil influence, or if our sins keep back the great and 
mighty blessing that we want in this city, we pray that 
thou wilt bring it to light. We pray that the Holy Spirit 
may reveal to each one of us all our sins, that we may turn 
away from them and hate them with a perfect hatred; 
that thy Spirit may come with power upon our hearts 
and fill them with holy desires. O God, we pray thee 
that thy blessing may rest on all the churches of New 
England, upon this day of fasting and prayer. We pray 
that thy blessing may rest on all the fathers and mothers 
closeted with thee to-day, as they pour out their hearts 
in prayer for their children. O God, hear and answer 
their prayer, and may the joyful tidings of souls re- 
deemed be coming in from all over New England before 
long. Let the summons of grace be everywhere heard, 
that the wilderness may blossom and the solitary places 
be made glad. O God, we pray thee that the churches 
in New England may be blest, that the mothers, heart- 
broken on account of their children, may be comforted, 
and may those who were in darkness see the blessed light 
of the sun. O God, come in power upon us, and pass 
through New England, that a cry may be raised, "Jesus 
of Nazareth passeth by." O God, hear our supplications 
here to-day, and answer our prayers; answer the many 
prayers that are going up to thee. Come, Holy Spirit, in 
thy mighty power, and convict our hearts of sin, and melt 
them and turn them from darkness to light. Amen. 



Moody's Prayers. 299 

Our Heavenly Father, we pray that thy blessing may 
rest upon all that have assembled in this hall at this 
hour ; and that every man in this assembly that is without 
God and without hope in . this dark world may be 
convicted of his sin at this hour. We pray that the 
Holy Ghost may do his work; and that there 
may be many that shall look back, in after years, 
to this hour and this hall, as the time and place 
where they became children of God and heirs of eternal 
life. We pray that thou wilt bless them; and wilt thou 
bless the gospel that shall be spoken this afternoon, and 
may it reach-many hearts. May there be many led by the 
Spirit of God, this day, to the cross of Christ, there to 
cast their burden and their guilt upon him who came into 
the world to put away the sins of the world by the sacri- 
fice of himself. And may there be many here who shall 
hear the loving voice of the Good Shepherd saying unto 
them "Come unto me all ye that are burdened and heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest :" and may those that are 
burdened and heavy laden find rest in Christ to-day. May 
those that are cast down on account of their sins, this day 
be lifted up by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And, O God, 
we pray thee that thou wouldst snap the fetters that bind 
them and set the poor bondsmen free to-day; and may 
this be the day that they shall come unto thee. And 
thy name shall have the power and the glory forever. 
Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee that thou dost 
answer prayer ; that thou didst hear the cry of Saul, when 
from the depths of the heart he prayed, "Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do?" We thank thee that thou didst 
hear the prayer of the poor publican, "God be merciful to 



300 Dwight L. Moody. 

me a sinner," and didst send him to his house justified; 
that thou didst save Peter, as he was sinking in the water, 
when he cried unto thee, "Save, Lord, or I perish!" O 
God, there are many here who are sinking in the waters 
of affliction and trouble. In their darkness and trial, O 
Son of God, help them ; and as they cry unto thee, reach 
out thy almighty hand and save them. May the rich 
blessing of thy salvation fall upon them as they cry, with 
the thief on the cross, "Lord, remember me;" and may 
many hearts be led to the Saviour and profess Christ 
and him crucified. And help us, who call ourselves 
by thy name, O Lord, to love thee more. May we be as 
beacon lights in this dark world, so that none may 
stumble because of us. Son of God, advance thy king- 
dom here ; and as we draw near the close of these meet- 
ings, hear us as we once more lift up our hearts to thee 
in prayer, that these closing meetings may be the best we 
have ever had. We pray that every unsaved soul here 
may accept salvation to-night. O Lord, open the eyes 
of all such to-night. Cause the scales to fall from 
their eyes, that they may see, as did Saul, the power of 
God. Be with us as we go to yonder inquiry-room; 
bless the after-meetings abundantly; and thy name shall 
have the praise and the glory. Amen. 



HIS SERMONS 



(3°i) 



I. 

SERMONS ON GREAT DOCTRINES. 



GOD. 

GOD IS LOVE. 

/Rpjf Y text is on fire to-night, [pointing to the gas- 
JfU^ light letters above the platform, " God IS Love,"] 
and I wish it might be burned into all your hearts. 
There is no text that the devil has tried so hard to blot 
out of men's minds as this. 

We used to have that text in letters of light over in 
the North Side Church, and one night a poor wanderer 
caught a glimpse of it through the door, which was 
slightly open, " ' God is love.' I don't believe that," he 
exclaimed. " I don't believe that God loves me." But 
he went along for a few blocks, with the text ringing in 
his ears, till at last he came back, stayed through the 
service, and at the close of it I found him weeping bit- 
terly. The text had broken his heart, and it was not 
long before he was happily converted. 

Some people wonder why God should love such sin- 
ners as we are. Well, I suppose it is on the same prin- 
ciple that the sun shines. The sun is light, and can't 
help shining ; God is love, and he can't help loving. 

Let us not think of God as we do of one another, If a 
man receives a wrong from another he casts him off; not 
so with God. He hates sin with a perfect hatred, but 

[ 303 ] 



304 Dwight L. Moody: 

he loves the sinner with a perfect love : and if you are 
finally lost in hell, it will be in spite of the infinite love 
of God. In John xiii, 1, it is said of Jesus, that "having 
loved his own which were in the world, he loved them 
unto the end." He loved Judas, who betrayed him ; he 
loved Peter, who denied him ; he loved all the disciples, 
though, in the trying moment, every one of them forsook 
him and fled. 

In Isaiah xlix, 15, God asks the question, "Can a 
woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have 
compassion on the son of her womb ? yea, they may for- 
get, yet will I not forget thee." There is no love equal 
to that of a mother, except it be God's. A wife may for- 
sake her husband, but a mother will cleave to her son, 
even though he is denounced as a criminal, tried for his 
-life, and finally hanged. To the last she stands by him, 
and when they give his poor broken body over to her, she 
covers his dead face with tears. But God loves us better 
than that. A mother may forget, but God never does. 

In Jeremiah xxxi, 3, God says to Israel, " I have 
Toyed thee with an everlasting love." 

"Well," says one, "I believe that. That suits me a 
great deal better than the sermon of last night about the 
blood." Don't make a mistake, my friend. God loves 
sinners, but he cannot bring them into heaven unless 
they repent and give their hearts to him. If he was to 
do that they would raise the flap of revolt close beside 
his throne, and there would be war in heaven again. 

A lady came to me in England, and told me of one 
of her sons who was an exile from his home. He had 
writ^eR-to; ask. that he might come .back, and yet his 



His Sermons. 305 

parents did not dare to bring him back, for they thought 
he would be sure to turn their home into a hell, and ruin 
all the rest of the children. 

An old gentleman in New York had a wicked son, 
who had already sent his gray-haired mother to the 
grave with a broken heart ; and one night, when the boy 
was going out, the father begged him to stay with him, 
saying, " You have not spent one evening at home since 
your mother died. Will you not stay one night with me ? " 

" No," said the boy, " I will not." 

Then the father threw himself down in the open door 
and said, " My son, you are stronger than I, but you 
shall not go out to-night, unless you go over my poor old 
body." 

And that wicked son leaped over his father's body, and 
rushed away to his old companions in sin. Just so it is 
with a great many sinners, who rush to destruction in 
spite of all the tokens of the love and mercy of God. 

In Isaiah xxxviii, 17, the prophet cries out, " Thou 
hast cast all my sins behind thy back." I like that word 
" all." If all my sins were cast behind my back, the devil 
might find them and bring them up to ruin me; but when 
they are cast behind His back nobody can ever find them 
again. There are four expressions used for putting away 
sins. One is " As far as the east is from the west, so far 
hath he removed our transgression from us ; " another is, 
that He puts them away " as a cloud ; " another, He 
casts them into the sea of forgetfulness ; and then this 
one, He casts them behind his back. 

Do not try to put away your own sins. You cannot 

forgive yourself for robbing another man of a thousand 
20 



306 Dwight L. Moody: 

dollars. You may have nothing against him, but he has 
something against you. Come to God and ask him to 
put away your sins for the sake of the blood of his Son, 
and he will put them away so far that nobody shall ever 
be able to find them again. 

In Isaiah lxiii, 9, we read, " In all their affliction he 
was afflicted." God pities us. Our lost condition moves 
his heart, so that just as he hastened down to Eden after 
Adam's sin, and dealt with him in grace, he will come to 
any sinner who will receive him, and share his sorrows, 
and take away his sins. 

A gentleman from Manchester, England, visited Chi- 
cago just before the fire, and when he went home he 
tried to tell what a wonderful city it was, but nobody 
cared to listen to him. Pretty soon the news came over 
the wires that the city was on fire, and that a hundred 
thousand people were burned out of house and home, 
and were actually in danger of perishing out on the 
prairie, unless assistance should come at once. Then 
that city was full of interest about Chicago ; men were 
in tears, and what was better, they were giving their 
money by thousands to send to the sufferers. 

So with God. Our sorrows cry out for us louder than 
our sins cry out against us. He feels his heart going 
out to us, and sends his Son to redeem us. Here in 
Revelation i, 5, it speaks of Jesus Christ, who has "loved 
us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood ; " not 
washed us and loved us, but loved us first and washed 
us afterward ; loved us in spite of the defilement of our 
sins. 

In Ephesians iii, 18, we are told about the height. 



His Sermons. 307 

and depth, and length, and breadth of the love of God. 
My friends, if you want to know this, come to Calvary. 
Nothing will show you the love of God to sinners so well 
as the Cross of his Son, Jesus Christ. 

When the French and Prussian war was going on, and 
the Commune was imprisoning people and putting them 
to death, they took a Roman Catholic archbishop and 
put him into a prison which had an opening in the door 
in the shape of a cross; and when they went to bring 
him out to die they found that he had written over the 
ends of the cross thus :— 

Height. 
Length. — 



Breadth. 



Depth. 

All ! that man had been to Calvary. 

Some people say, " I don't see why I have so many 
troubles and afflictions, if the Lord loves me so much." 
Well, that is just the very proof that he does love you. 
That father who lets his son go on in the way to death 
and destruction without correcting him is the one who 
does not love him "Whom the Lord loveth he chas- 
teneth." 

In Romans viii, 28, we are told that " all things work 
together for good to them that love God." A member 
of my family was sick one night, so I got a prescription 



308 Dwight L. Moody: 

from a doctor and went to the druggist to have it made 
up. He took a little out of one bottle, and a little out 
of another, and another, and another, putting them all 
into the same bottle, and gave it to me, saying it was all 
right. So you see these different medicines all "worked 
together" for the good of the patient. So with all things 
in God's providence and grace — bitter and sweet, pain 
and pleasure, joy and sorrow — all things work together 
for good to them that love God. 

Paul understood this love of God. When they put 
the thirty-nine stripes on him, and stoned him, and cast 
him into prison, he would say to himself, " ' All things' 
— and these are some of them — work together for my 
good." He knew he loved God ; the devil couldn't 
make him doubt that, and so every thing was all right 
for him. If it hadn't been for those prisons we might 
not have had those epistles of his : we haven't any of 
his sermons, they have all been lost ; but these epistles 
are ours, and I doubt not that thousands of people have 
gone up to heaven and met the grand old apostle, and 
said to him, " I thank God for that Epistle to the Corin- 
thians ; " " I thank God for the Epistle to the Ephesians." 

Some one may say, " Of course God loves them that 
love him." Well, I used to preach that half-way doctrine 
once; but when I was over in Dublin, in 1867, a young 
man came to me — he didn't look as if he were more than 
seventeen years old — and asked if I wouldn't like to have 
him come to America and preach along with me. I did 
not want him, for he didn't look as if he could do much 
preaching, so I came off, and didn't let him know when 
I sailed. After awhile I got a letter from him, saying 



His Sermons. 309 

he was in New York, and that he would come to Chicago 
and preach for me if I wished it. I wrote him in reply, 
telling him he must come and see me if he ever came to 
Chicago, and pretty soon, sure enough, he wrote to say 
that he would be with me on Thursday of that week. I 
was just going off to Iowa to be gone till Sunday, so I 
told my people they might let the young Englishman 
preach on a week night, and I went away feeling pretty 
anxious about it. 

The first thing when I got home on Saturday night 
1 asked about my young preacher. My wife said he 
spoke very well, but that he preached some different 
doctrines from me. Then, of course, I didn't like him. 
But we went to church on Sunday, and I noticed there 
was a large congregation, and that they were all bring- 
ing their Bibles. He had got them in that way in two 
evenings. When he gave out his text I noticed a smile 
running round the audience. It was the third chapter 
of John and the sixteenth verse : " For God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever beheveth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." The people were so much interested that a 
crowd filled the church in the evening, when he took the 
same text again ; and so wonderfully did he explain it 
that we asked him to preach every night that week. 

The week was a memorable one. Night after night 
Mr. Moorehouse preached to immense congregations, 
taking the same text every time, until he made the love 
of God appear the central truth of the whole Bible. At 
the close of the seventh sermon from the same words, 
he said : — 



310 Dwight L. Moody: 

" If I were to die to-night, and go up to heaven, and 
there meet Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God 
and if I were to ask him how much God loves sinners, 
this is what I think he would say : ' God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life.' " 

He spoiled one or two of my sermons for me : I have 
never seen them since ; but he showed me that God loved 
sinners in spite of their sins. 

I pity the man who goes down to hell with that text 
hanging over him. My friends, don't forget that it was 
while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us. I 
have been into some homes in this city that were so 
vile and dirty that I couldn't stay there five minutes ; 
but Jesus Christ waits to come into the heart of the 
vilest sinner and take up his residence there. It isn't 
because we are lovely, but because he is love, that Christ 
died for us, and offers to come and dwell with us. " He 
that loveth not, knoweth not God ; for God is love ; " 
and again, " Herein is love, not that we loved God, but 
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation 
for our sins." 

Love always grows as it descends. The mother loves 
her child more than the child loves its mother. Just so 
God loves us more than we can ever love him. 

The badge of discipleship which Christ himself or- 
dained was their love to one another. Some people tell 
me they don't have any doubts about God's love to them, 
but they can't find out whether they love God ; and I just 
tell them to test themselves by the fourth chapter of 



His Sermons. 311 

St. John's First Epistle, and they can very easily find out. 
If you have any hard feelings in your heart against any 
man or woman, you may be sure the love of the Father 
is not in you. 

I remember hearing, a few years ago, of a scholar in a 
Sunday-school who was conquered by love. It was a boy 
whom nobody could manage, and at last it was thought 
he would have to be turned out, when a young lady of 
wealth and position said, " I wish you would let me have 
that boy." The superintendent replied, " If none of the 
men can manage him I am quite sure you could not. If 
he talks so vulgar that the men can't have him in their 
classes, I am sure you cannot." 

" Let me try him," she said. 

The next Sunday he put the boy in her class, and for a 
few Sundays he heard of no trouble. Every thing went 
on well. But one Sunday he broke the rules of the class, 
and when she corrected him he spit in her face. She 
took her handkerchief and wiped it away, and said 
nothing. At the close of the school she said, " I wish 
you would walk along home with me, and have a talk 
with me." 

"I wont. I wouldn't be seen on the street with 
you. I am not coming to this old Sunday-school any 
more." 

" Well," she said, " wont you let me walk home with 
you ? I don't want to scold you ; I want to talk with 
you." 

" I wont. I wont be seen with you." 

So she tried another course ; she tried the curiosity 
course, and said : " I wish you would come to my house 



312 Dwight L. Moody: 

on Tuesday morning ; I shall not be home on Tuesday, 
but you just come and ring the door-be 11 , and tell the 
servant there is a bundle for you on my bureau." 

" I wont ; you may keep your old bundle." 

Still she felt pretty sure he would come. After he got 
over his mad fit he began to want to see what was in 
the bundle, and on Tuesday morning he was there. The 
servant understood the matter, and gave him the bundle. 
The little fellow opened it, and there was a little jacket, 
a little necktie, and a note from his teacher telling him 
how much she loved him, and that every morning since 
he had been in the class she had been praying for him 
that he might be a good boy and a good man. 

The next morning, before she was up, the servant 
camt and said a little boy was down stairs, who wanted 
to see her. When she came down she found him lying 
on the sofa, crying as if his heart would break. 

" What is the trouble ? " she asked. 

" I have had no peace since I received ydur note. 
You have been so kind to me, and I have been so unkind 
to you ! I hope you will forgive me." 

The teacher said, " Certainly," and she knelt down 
and prayed for him. Love conquered him. There is 
nowhere a heart so hard but love can conquer it. 

I used to think more of Christ than of God. It seemed 
to me that God was away off somewhere sitting on his 
great white throne, and not taking any interest in me. 
But that is all changed now, and it seems now to me 
that it took more love on the part of God the Father to 
give his Son to die for us, than it did on the part of the 
Son to suffer. 



His Sermons. 313 

Some one may ask how it happens that God loves us 
The answer seems easy — he cannot help it. " God is 
love ; " and how can a being whose nature is love keep 
from loving, any more than the sun, whr>se nature is 
light, can keep from shining? But, my friends, we must 
not fail to keep in mind this fact, that while God loves 
us he hates our sins. 

In the thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah, at the third 
verse, we have these words : " The Lord hath appeared 
of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an 
everlasting love : therefore with loving kindness have I 
drawn thee." 

Here, then, are the three characteristics of the love of 
God. It is unchangeable, unfailing, everlasting. 

God leaves no doubt about his love in any man's 
mind who will read his Book. He has given his only 
Son to prove it, but the world would not have him, 
though he came to take away its sins, and to purchase 
an eternal redemption for them. 

There is a passage in the Songs of Solomon that is 
very precious to me. It is this: " His banner over me 
was love." 

There was a man came from Europe to this country 
a year or two ago, and he became dissatisfied, and went 
to Cuba in 1867, when they had that great civil war there. 
Finally he was arrested for a spy, court-martialed, and 
condemned to be shot. He sent for the American con- 
sul and the English consul, and these two men were 
thoroughly convinced that the man was no spy, and they 
went to one of the Spanish officers and said, " This man 
you have condemned to be shot is an innocent man." 



314 Dwight L. Moody: 

1 Well," the Spanish officer says, " the man has been 
tried by our laws and condemned : the law must take its 
course; the man must die." 

The next morning the man was led out ; the grave was 
already dug for him ; the black cap was put on him ; the 
soldiers were there and in a few moments the man would 
be shot, when up comes a carriage just in time. Out 
leaped the American consul, took the American flag and 
wrapped it around the condemned man, and the English 
consul took the English flag and wrapped it around him, 
and then they said to those soldiers, " Fire on those flags 
if you dare ! " 

Not a man dared to fire ; there were two great gov- 
ernments behind those flags- So God says to you, my 
friends — to every one of you — " Come under my banner, 
come under the banner of love, come under the banner 
of heaven." That banner covering you you are safe ' 
That it may float over every soul here is the prayer of 
my heart. God don't will the death of any who will 
come under his banner of love. 



HIS POWER. 

Now I want you to take special notice of the words 
written in Jeremiah xxxvi, 17: "Ah Lord God! behold, 
thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great 
power and stretched-out arm, and there is nothing too 
hard for thee." 

I think the Lord was pleased with this prayer of Jere- 
miah', for he responds to him in the twenty-seventh verse 
' Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh : is there 



His Sermons. 315 

any thing too hard for me?" God likes to have his 
people believe that there is nothing too hard for him. 
We talk about Frederick the Great, and Alexander the 
Great, but how very little are these mighty men when 
we come to compare them with God. If Tyndall, or 
Huxley, or Darwin had ever created any light, what a 
sound of trumpets there would have been about it ! but 
we read in the Bible the very simple statement, "And 
God said, Let there be light : and there was light," — and 
that is all there is said about it. 

Here is this earth of ours, twenty-five thousand miles 
around, with its great oceans, and its great mountains, 
and its great rivers; and yet it is only a little ball that 
the Lord tosses out of his hand. The astronomers tell 
us that the sun is thirteen hundred thousand times larger 
than the earth. What seas, what mountains, what rivers 
there must be there ! Besides this, there are eighty mill- 
ions of other suns, and millions upon millions of other 
stars, that have been discovered ; yet I suppose these 
are only like a few towns and villages on the outskirts 
of God's great empire. Now what folly to try to measure 
God with our little rule ! 

But I hear somebody saying, " If God is so great as 
that, he will not condescend to trouble himself about 
such an insignificant creature as I." 

This is all wiong. If you study the Bible, you will find 
out that no sooner did the news come up to heaven that 
Adam had fallen, than God was right down in Eden after 
him. Men sometimes get to be so big that they don't 
care for little things, but God never does. 

We are all the time limiting God's power by our own 



316 Dwight L. Moody: 

ideas. There is a drunkard ; the appetite for strong drink 
has overcome him ; he has actually drunk up his will. 
Well what of it ? He who said, " Let there be light: and 
there was light," can just as easily s^y, " Let there be life : 
and there will be life." The man may be a gambler a 
deist, an infidel ; the woman may be a harlot, and her 
feet may begin to take hold on hell ; but the Lord, who 
created the heavens and the earth, wont find it hard to 
save the chief of sinners if they will only give their wicked 
hearts to him. Let us get our eyes off one another and 
fix them upon God. There is nothing too hard for him. 

Whenever we go to a new place the people say, " O, 
yes ; you did so and so in that city, but this place is 
very peculiar ; there are special difficulties here such as 
you have never met before." 

Yes, I suppose there are special difficulties in every 
case, but these obstacles wont stand in the way very long 
when God rises up to carry on his work. When Mr. 
Sankey and I first started but, we took this seventh verse 
of the thirty-second chapter of Jeremiah for our motto, 
" Ah ! Lord God, . . . there is nothing too hard for thee," 
and we always had great success. After awhile we 
thought we would take some other motto ; but we 
couldn't get on at all until we came back to this seven- 
teenth verse, " There is nothing too hard for thee." 

"And of his fullness have all we received." It is a 
very common fault with Christians to forget the Lord's 
fullness. They are living on stale manna, and trying 
to get happy over their past experience. They were 
converted twenty years ago ; and they seem to think 
that the Lord gave them a blessing which was to last 



His Sermons. 317 

them all their lives. Not so ; there is an infinite " full 
ness " in Christ, and they who believe in him may re 
ceive of it all the time. Ask Enoch — he received of the 
" fullness," and so was able to walk with God. Ask 
Noah — he was able to live and preach one hundred and 
twenty years, while he was about the only man in all the 
world who believed in God, and this he could do because 
he had received of the Lord's " fullness." Ask Abraham 
— he was able to offer up his only son at the command 
of God. Ask Joshua — he received the " fullness," and 
nobody was able to stand before him all the days of his 
life. 

Now, some people think those old patriarchs and 
prophets were a different kind of men from what we have 
in these days. Not at all. They were men of like pas- 
sions with us. You just let the ministers and Christian 
workers nowadays get filled with the Lord's " fullness," 
and they will be like giants filled with new wine. 

There were the reformers Knox, Wesley, Whitefield, 
and Newton. Were they any greater men in intellect 
than a great many others in their time? By no means ; 
but they had received of the Lord's " fullness." That was 
what made them so great and strong in his work. Take 
the twelve apostles, they were not men of learning and 
science ; they were not great orators ; they wre not 
rich, had no social position. But just think of a Galilean 
fisherman writing such a book as the Gospel o*" John ! 
There isn't a learned man in all the world who could 
make such a book, unless he had received the Lord's 
" fullness." 



318 Dwight L. Moody: 



JESUS CHRIST: 

HIS CHARACTER AND OFFICES. 

PROPHECIES CONCERNING CHRIST. 
TTr'N Second Timothy, third chapter sixteenth verse, we 
4^ read, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. ' 
That referred, of course, to the Old Testament, and is a 
text which ought to be preached on by ministers in 
these days who have their doubts about the inspiration 
of the Old Testament, while they profess to believe in 
that of the New. 

When Christ was on earth he was constantly referring 
to the Scriptures; by which term, of course, he meant 
the Old Testament, as there were no other Scriptures 
then in existence. x 

There are two hundred prophecies in the Old Testa- 
ment concerning Jesus Christ, every solitary one of which 
has been fulfilled ; and yet there are some intelligent 
persons who say they really don't think that the Bible 
is inspired. Such people ought to remember that " the 
Scriptures cannot be broken." 

Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms, all testify 
of Christ. If you turn to the twenty-fourth chapter of 
Luke and twenty-seventh verse, where Christ, after his 
resurrection, was talking with the two disciples as he 
walked with them to Emmaus, you will find these words: 
*' And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he ex- 
pounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things con- 
cerning himself.' Then in the forty-fourth verse of the 




HENRY DRUMMOND. 
One of Moody's Co-Workers in Great Britain. 



His Sermons. 319 

same chapter: "And he said unto tthem. These are the 
words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, 
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the 
law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, 
concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, 
that they might understand the Scriptures." 

There was never so much said about the birth, life, 
death, and resurrection of any man as about that of 
Jesus. Mark and John say nothing about Christ's birth. 
We are indebted to Matthew and Luke for all we know 
about it. For four thousand years, from the time that 
God made the promise in Eflen, men had been looking 
for this child. The mothers of Israel had been praying 
that they might be the mothers of this child, and now, 
as we come into the first chapter of Luke, we find the 
long, dark night had rolled away. 

We are told that Zacharias, the priest, received a visit 
from the angel Gabriel, and that he was somewhat stag- 
gered by the message. If you turn to Daniel you will 
find that it was the same angel that visited that prophet 
while he was praying. 

Gabriel is only recorded by name as having made 
three*visits to this world, and every time he came it was 
on something connected with Christ. 

In the first chapter of Luke we find this same Gabriel 

visiting Mary at Nazareth, and revealing to her the great 

event that was to befall her. I call your attention to 

what Gabriel said to her about her son : " He shall be 

great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest." So 

we have the right to call him the Son of God, because the 

angel said he should be called the " Son of the Highest." 
21 



320 Dwight L. Moody : 

The birth of John was not a secret : and so you will 
find that, notwithstanding the claims of the infidels to 
the contrary, Christ's birth was not a secret. 

The emperor of Rome issued a decree that the whole 
world should pay a tax, and that every one should repair 
to his native place and be registered. That is one of the 
most marvelous things in the whole word of God. I am 
told by very good Bible students that that impost was 
not collected for nine years afterward. The child Jesus 
would have been born at Nazareth had not the emperor 
sent out this decree. In consequence thereof Mary went 
to Bethlehem, and the child was born there ; in other 
words, God set the whole world in motion to bring the 
virgin to Bethlehem, so that his word might be fulfilled. 
If that child had been born at Nazareth the Scriptures 
would not have been true, and if the Scriptures can be 
broken in one place, they may in another. 

What are you going to do with the passover if you 
take Christ out of the Old Testament ? What are you 
going to do with the atonement — the sacrifices — the bra- 
zen serpent — the sin-offering? What do they all mean? 

The Old Testament is a sealed book if you take Christ 
out of it. He is the key of the word, and he unlocks the 
Old Testament just as he does the New. 

Philip found Christ in the Old Testament at the fifty- 
third chapter of Isaiah, (Acts viii, 30-35,) and you may 
find him in the same place, and in hundreds of other 
places in the writings of Moses and the prophets. 

Study the Book of Genesis. You will find Christ 
there. " The Seed of the woman shall bruise the ser 
pent's head.' 



His Sermons. 321 

Take Exodus. That may be called the book of re- 
demption. Leviticus is the book of sacrifices. They 
both abound in typical references to Christ. 

There is no other way of understanding the entire 
system of Old Testament worship except as types and 
prophecies of Christ. 



ANNOUNCEMENT OF CHRIST'S BIRTH. 
.The angels came to the shepherds and announced the 
birth of Christ. I have an idea that they thought the 
whole world would rise as one man and receive him with 
open arms as the Messiah. I don't think they would 
have imagined men to be so blind and foolish as to not 
receive the Prince of heaven with joy. When a prince 
comes to this country every body wants to do him 
honor ; but here was a Prince from heaven, and it would 
seem strange that He should not be received with joy 
and gladness. 

The angels said to the shepherds, " We bring you 
glad tidings " — not bad tidings. Now I guarantee that 
nine-tenths of the people in Chicago think the Gospel 
bad tidings ; they do not want it ; that is the trouble 
with most people. They are afraid of good tidings, and 
that just shows the depravity of men's hearts. I never 
knew a person in my life who did not like to hear good 
news, and what better news can a man receive than that 
he has a Saviour ? 

There is no one in this audience but requires a Saviour. 
How many of those women here try to keep their temper, 
and cannot do it ? How many men are trying to gain a 



322 Dwight L. Moody: 

victory over their passions and lusts, and fail ? The fact 
is, we all need a Saviour ; and God, who knew just what 
the world needed, gave the very gift that meets our case. 
What folly, what madness, that all the world do not ac- 
cept the gift with joy ! 

One word about Joseph. He just appears on the 
horizon, and then fades away, and we see no more of 
him. The last we hear of him is when he appears in 
the temple with Christ, when he is twelve years old. 

Now about Christ's being born of a woman. 

Some ask why he did not come from heaven in glory 
and grandeur. 

I suppose he could have done so ; he could have come 
from the throne in a golden chariot, and have gone 
through the world as an angel of light. But if a man 
wants to be a mediator he must be a friend of both par- 
ties, and how could Christ have been a mediator between 
us and God if he had not taken upon himself our nature ? 
He had to take upon himself our nature in order to 
mediate between God and man. Some say it was a 
mystery that God ever permitted sin to come into the 
world, but it was a greater mystery that God ever senr 
his Son to bear the brunt of it. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 

A MAN asked me the other day if there was any place 
in the Bible where Christ expressly said that he was 
any thing more than a man. It seems to me that the 
Gospel of John is full proof of the divinity of Christ. It 
was for that purpose chiefly that his Gospel was written. 



His Sermons. 323 

When the Pharisees came to Christ with the question, 
"Which was the great commandment?" he turned upon 
them with the question, " What think ye of Christ ? whose 
son is he ? " They said, " The son of David." 

" Well, then," said Christ, " how is it that David called 
him Lord ? " And they were confounded, and asked him 
no more questions from that day. The fact is, the Jews 
did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, and I want 
to say right here, if men don't believe that the whole 
Bible is gone. If a man is wrong on the divinity of 
our Lord, he is wrong on every thing. We must get 
the foundation right before we attempt to build. 

But let us go still further. I am willing to summons 
the very devils of hell. When Christ came near a man 
possessed with a devil, the devil cried out, " What have 
I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? 
I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not." (Mark 
v, 7.) Even the very devils testified that he was the Son 
of God. 

Next take the high priest, who, as president of the 
Sanhedrin, was there when the verdict of death was pro- 
nounced. What does he say? He put him under oath, 
and asked him if he was the Son of God, and Jesus an- 
swered, " Thou hast said ; " that is, " I am." That is the 
very thing we glory in ; we believe he is the Son of God. 

In one sentence, I think, John has settled the question 
of the divinity of Christ. " In the beginning was the 
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was 
God." Indeed, the whole object of this Gospel is tc 
teach us to believe in Christ as the Son of God, and to 
receive him as our divine redeemer and God. 



324 Dwight L. Moody : 

Tf Tesus Christ were not the Son of God we are guilty 
of the very worst sin, because the very first command 
ment is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." 
Look at the millions of people who would be guilty of 
idolatry if Christ were not God in the flesh. Think ot 
those who have poured out their blood to establish and 
maintain this truth ! What an impostor he was if he 
were not God in the flesh ! 

In the eleventh chapter Christ says, " I am the resur- 
rection and the life ; " and concerning his own life, he 
says, " I have power to lay it down and power to take it 
again." No one less than God can do that. 

But again, if Christ were not divine what are v/e to do 
with such texts as : — • 

" I and my Father are one." John x, 30. 

" Before Abraham was, I am." John viii, 58. 

" My Father worketh hitherto and I work." John v, 
17, 18. 

" I am the Son of God." John x, 36-38. 

" He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." John 
xiv, 9. 

" Where two or three are gathered together in m\ 
name, there am I in the midst." Matt, xviii, 20. 

' ; All things are delivered unto me of my Father.' 
Matt, xi, 27. 

" I [Jesus] am the root and the offspring of David ' 
R.ev xxii, 16. 



His Sermons. 325 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 

THIS question is a legitimate, practical one, which every 
preacher has the right to ask, and one which, if I had 
time, I would like to put to every one here personally. 
What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Did he 
come from heaven, and was he with God when the morn- 
ing stars sang together? Is it true that he was with 
God when the foundations of this world were laid ? 
That is the question, and it is of the utmost importance. 
Men ought to make up their minds and decide who 
Christ is. 

There is something remarkable about the sayings of 
Christ ; they can be read over and over again, and every 
time you read them you see something new. Christ was 
a child's preacher. He preached so plain that little chil- 
dren like to read him ; and yet his words are so deep 
that the greatest theologians cannot fathom their depths. 
I would like you to compare him with the preachers of 
the present day, and see how he taught the people. I 
asr told by travelers in Palestine that you cannot see a 
thing in that country but what Jesus used to illustrate 
his sermons. 

I would like to take him up as a preacher. Look at 
that wonderful sermon recorded in the fifth of Matthew. 
Infidels have tried to attack that sermon, but have failed. 
It has done more good than any sermon ever preached 
in this world. 

I might ask what you think of him as a physician ? 
We have some eminent physicians in Chicago, and 



326 Dwight L. Moody: 

people are proud of them. Not long ago a lady 
suffering from diphtheria told me that her doctor had 
not lost a case, and she had great confidence in htm. 
But I don't think you can find a doctor in Chicago 
who has not lost a case if he has had much practice. 
Jesus never lost a case, and he had some difficult 
ones. Some were dead even, and he brought them back 
to lite. All the afflicted had to do was to press up to 
him and the virtue would come forth, and they would 
be healed. In some parts of the world we have what 
are called Hospitals for Incurables. They didn't need 
such institutions in Christ's day; there was nothing but 
what he could cure. 

I would like to talk of him as a Comforter. Think 
how he comforted the wounded and broken hearts. But 
the point to-day is, " Was he God-man ? " Was he in the 
bosom of the Father, and did he voluntarily leave heaven 
and come down to earth and suffer and die that we 
might live? The only way to find this out is to study 
the Scriptures. 

If I was coming to Chicago to find out about a man. 
there are two classes of people I would like to meet — his 
friends and enemies, so that I could hear both sides. 
Now, I propose to bring up witnesses, and I want to 
make you a jury to decide this great question. I shall 
not be partial, but bring up both enemies and friends. 

We will first call the Pharisees, who were Christ's 
bitterest enemies. One of the charges they preferred 
against him was, " This man receiveth sinners and eat- 
the with them." Thank God for that ! The very thing 
they bring against him is just what you and I like. 



His Sermons. 327 

Let us take Pilate; he is not a Jew, and is unbiased 
and unprejudiced. His testimony is, " I find no fault in 
this man." Then Pilate's wife sent a message to her hus- 
band saying, " Have thou nothing to do with that just 
man, for I have suffered many things in a dream because 
of him." 

Well, suppose we bring in Judas, the prince of traitors, 
and ask what fault he found in him. See his counte- 
nance fall, as remorse, despair, and agony come upon 
him, and he wrings his hands and throws down the thir- 
ty pieces of silver, saying, " I have betrayed innocent 
blood." A great many persons are crying out against 
Judas, but I tell you there are worse men than he in 
Chicago to-day. 

It seems to me that I might rest the case here, and 
that you could render a verdict that Christ is the true 
Messiah. But this is only what his enemies said ; I have 
a good many stronger witnesses among his friends. The 
testimony of John the Baptist, Peter, doubting Thomas, 
Paul, and the angels that appeared at his birth, is all to 
the same effect ; and if I could just shout up to the 
throne and ask the angels there what they think of him, 
just imagine what would be the reply. It would be the 
voice that John heard — the voice of many angels — say- 
ing, 4i Worthy is the Lamb that was slain ! " Would it 
not be a glorious thing for Chicago if its people would 
help swell that heavenly cry? Take God's own testi- 
mony, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased." That is what God the Father thought. Sin- 
ner, what do you think of him?" If God was well 
pleased with him, wont you be pleased with him t Li 



328 Dwight L. Moody: 

God thought a good deal of him, wont you think a little 
of him ? O that God may now tear the scales from 
your eyes, that you may behold him as " the lily of the 
valley," as the " rose of Sharon," as the " root and off- 
spring of David," as " the bright and morning star," as 
God's beloved Son sent down to this dark world to 
save us. 

Now, what do you think of him ? Put the question to 
yourself. Do you think a good deal of him ? What do 
you think of him, young man ; what do you, you, and 
you [turning in different directions] think of him ? Do 
you think enough of him to trust him ? Let the ques- 
tion go up into the galleries. Dr. Thompson, what do 
you think of him — as much as ever? [Answer] — " More. 
He is my Lord and my God." Professor Risk, what do 
you think of him ? [Answer] — " Every thing." 

Well, how many are going to think enough of him 
to trust him this afternoon? We must have a poor 
opinion of Christ if we wont trust him. Let all who are 
willing to trust him as their Saviour from this hour rise 
and sing, " Just as I am, without one plea," and iet the 
rest keep their seats. 

Almost the entire audience rose and joined in the hymn. 



His Sermons. 329 



JESUS THE MESSIAH. 

On another occasion Mr. Moody read the lesson for the day from 
1 Cor. i, 18, 22-24 : "For the preaching of the cross is to them that 
perish, foolishness ; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of 
God. . . . For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after 
wisdom : but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling 
block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are 
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wis- 
dom of God." 

The world in these days is divided into the same 
three classes. There are the Jews and all their class, 
who seek after something else than the Gospel a* a 
sign of its truth. In the third chapter of John Christ 
takes up this class of people, and mentions four signs or 
proofs of his Messiahship. First, John the Baptist tes- 
tified of it ; second, his own miracles proved it ; third, 
God the Father had spoken from heaven to declare it ; 
and, fourth, Moses and the law made reference to him. 
From his birth of a virgin predicted by Isaiah, until his 
death on the cross of Calvary, signs had followed him 
and wonders had been done by him ; but the greatest 
sign of all was his resurrection from the dead. Besides 
all these, look at the sign which has been in the world for 
nearly nineteen hundred years. Here is a man who died 
as a malefactor at the hands of Roman soldiers, whose 
doctrines have been preached for a religion, and whose 
name has been believed in as a Saviour. Now how can 
you account for it ? Just try to preach some other name, 
as Moses or Elijah, and see how long you can make it 
the basis of a new religion ! What power would there 
be in it? How many could you get to hear and believe 



330 Dwight L. Moody: 

it ? But look at the results of preaching and believing 
the name of Christ ! Take these regenerated drunkards, 
who had tried every thing else and failed, and at last 
came to Christ and were saved. Take those three thou- 
sand who were converted at Pentecost at the preaching 
of the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. 

Now do you suppose it would have been possible to 
deceive that number of shrewd, wise-headed Jews and 
Greeks ? Right there in Jerusalem, in the midst of 
those who wanted to believe that His disciples had 
stolen his body away, was the resurrection preached by 
those who had seen him and heard him, and eaten with 
him. He was seen by about five hundred brethen at one 
time, and if there had been a fraud wouldn't somebody 
have found it out ? This blessed truth has been attacked 
again and again, but it still lives. There was never a 
time when Jesus Christ had more friends than now. 

We find in the prophecy of Isaiah that His name was 
to be called " Wonderful," and if we take notice we will 
find that every thing about Christ was wonderful — an- 
other proof of his being God manifest in the flesh. 
There is nothing to be compared with it. 

In the fourth chapter of John's Gospel, in reply to the 
woman of Samaria at Jacob's well, Christ declares him- 
self to be the Messiah : " I that speak unto thee am he." 

The second class mentioned in the text are the Greeks, 
who wanted to find out Christ by wisdom. We have 
plenty of these Greeks among us. They say of these 
meetings, " O yes, they are good, very good, for a cer- 
tain class of poor and ignorant people ; for drunkards 
and harlots, and such, but they are of no use to us 



His Sermons. 331 

strong-minded people. These simple ones are deluded 
of course, but it does them no harm, and may do them 
some little good ; but as for us there is a more excellent 
way. We believe in education and culture." 

Well, now, let me ask one of these Greeks what he 
would do with a drunkard who has fallen into the gutter ? 
Teach him astronomy ? That would save him from get- 
ting drunk, wouldn't it ? 

Paul knew those old Greeks. When he was in Athens 
he found the city wholly given to idolatry. He found 
plenty of philosophers there, but of these the one class, 
the Epicureans, said there was no difference between 
good and evil, and the Stoics thought that God was no 
better than themselves. No wonder that society in 
Athens was as corrupt as hell. 

Jews and Greeks are thick enough in Chicago ; but 
then there is the third class of people, namely, those who 
are in Christ. They learn the power and wisdom of 
God in learning Christ ; but how much do they find out 
about him when, in the pride of their own wisdom, they 
refuse to receive his Gospel ? 

Those old unbelievers called Paul a babbler because 
he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection ; but 
there was more power and wisdom in him than in all 
those nations of.heathen put together. The power and 
the wisdom of God was in him because he was one with 
Christ ? 

Now to which of these three classes do you belong ? 



S3 2 Dwight L. Moody: 



THE TEMPTATIONS OF CHRIST. 

Tins afternoon I want to talk to you a little about the 
temptation of Christ. It is shown in the fourth chapter 
of Matthew that it was after God proclaimed Christ as 
nis Son that Satan made his attack on him. 

In the first chapter of Genesis we find this same enemy 
tempting Adam and Eve in Eden ; and if you compare 
Matthew with the first book of the Bible you will see 
that Satan made the same attack on Christ as he did on 
Adam and Eve. He did not attack him as the Son of 
God, but as Jesus of Nazareth. 

The first thing that Satan told him was to turn the 
stones into bread. He tempted him through the appe- 
tite, the same as Adam and Eve were tempted. 

He was also tempted by ambition. You will remem- 
ber that one of Satan's assertions when tempting Eve 
was, " Ye shall be as gods." 

The difference between the first and second Adam is, 
that the first fell when he was tempted, but the second 
withstood temptation by the word of God. Every man 
that stands by the word cannot fall ; it is those who 
begin to doubt that fall a prey to the devil. There is 
not a young convert here but will be tempted, and 
tempted, probably, as were the first and second Adam — 
through the appetite and ambition. But there is tic 
need of his falling ; it is the privilege of every child of 
God to live without falling. If we stand by our Bible 
we can defy the devil. But the trouble is, unbelief 
comes in. Men begin to doubt the word. The first 




A. C. DIXON. 



His Sermons. 333 

thing Satan did was to plant a doubt in Adam's heart 
and just as soon as we get that far our fall will be ac- 
complished. We are living in a day when we ought to 
be careful what we believe, and when we ought to meas- 
ure every sermon by the word of God. A man may be 
as eloquent as Gabriel, but unless he can stand the 
touchstone of the word he will be of no use. If Jesus 
overcame Satan by the word, how much greater is our 
need for that powerful safeguard against sin and temp- 
tation. There are a good many unbelieving Churches at 
the present time ; be careful you don't get into one. I 
would rather some one should poison my children with 
drugs from the drug store than teach them false doctrine 
which would lead them away from Christ. 



MIRACLES OF CHRIST. 

THE miracles of Christ have been often attacked. As 
soon as Christ began his ministry he began to perform 
miracles. 

The first miracle that Moses wrought was to turn the 
water into blood — that is, into death. Christ's first mir- 
acle was to turn water into wine — which means joy and 
life. 

A great many are claiming that miracles can be ac- 
counted for by natural causes. Let me give you a little 
advice. 11 you go into a church and hear a minister 
make such a remark, take your hat and get out as quick 
as possible. Go as Lot went out of Sodom, and do not 

look behind. He is the devil's own minister, and if he 
22 



334 Dwight L. Moody: 

had been sent from the very pit of hell into this w orld 
to preach he could not be more pernicious. It is just 
bringing the Son of God down to the level of one of the 
mediums of the present day, and degrading the miracle 
to a sleight-of-hand performance. The idea that any 
one should be guilty of such a thing in regard to our 
Lord and Saviour ! A miracle is a supernatural event 
and if a man will only admit one miracle, that settles the 
whole question ; but the moment we doubt one we are 
doing just what the devil wants us to do — doubting 
God's word. Is there a man or woman in this audience 
to-day that believes that Jesus did not turn that water 
into wine ? The idea that God had not the power to 
do it ! The God that could create this world out of 
nothing ! 

As Milton said when he was a school-boy, " Th^ con- 
scious water saw its God, and blushed." 

The reclamation of drunkards now going on in this 
city is as wonderful as the miracles of the Bible : and 
those women who are toiling that the drunkard^ may 
be saved will have a great many bright jewels in their 
crowns. They will be better known in heaven than they 
are here. 

I would like to have men explain the destruction of 
drunkards' appetites for liquor by natural causes. No. 
It is a miracle of grace, a miracle wrought by the divin* 
Spirit, through faith in a divine Saviour. 



His Sermons. 335 



CHRIST THE REFUGE. 

After reading the Scripture lesson from the twentieth chaptei ot 
Joshua, being an account of the appointment of the cities of refuge, 
to which he who slew his neighbor unawares might flee, to be safe 
from the avenger of blood, Mr. Moody said : — 

These cities of refuge were typical of Christ. 

The roads which led to them were always to be open, 
and the bridges in good repair. At the forks of the 
roads there were sign-boards with the word " refuge " 
in red letters, and a hand pointing the way to the city ; 
and when once a fugitive got inside he found shelter, 
defense, and society. 

Christ is the refuge for these poor drunkards, who are 
hunted down by the power of strong drink. Flee to him 
and you will find safety, pardon, a new nature, and the 
fellowship of Christ and his people. 

Now I want to call your attention to the names of 
these six cities of refuge. The first is Kadesh ; that 
means " holiness." " O," says one, " if I could only find 
holiness I should be safe ! " Well, my friend, if you 
want to find holiness come to Christ. He is holy; even 
the devils admit that. Don't you remember how the 
devil answered him when he charged him to come out of 
the maniac? " I know who thou art : the holy one of 
God." Christ is holiness for you ; you will never have 
any o( your own. Flee unto Kadesh, and Christ shall 
be made unto you righteousness, sanctification, and re- 
demption. 

The name of the next is Shechem; that means "shoul- 
der," something to carry burdens on. " O," says the 



336 Dwight L. Moody: 

poor sinner, " if I could only get rid of this awful load 
of sin ! It weighs me down to despair." Well, then, 
flee to Shechem. You haven't far to go. Christ is nigh 
thee. It isn't as if the city of refuge were ten miles 
away, and you must run to it with this terrible burden 
on your shoulders. Christ is right here. Just lay your 
burden on his shoulder, who is the great Burden-bearer, 
and he will carry it for you ; or, still better, roll it into 
his sepulcher, and you shall see it no more. 

The name of the third city is Hebron ; that means 
"joined." Some of these drunkards would like to be- 
come Christians, but they are all the time afraid they 
can't hold out. Well, my friend, the thing for you to do 
is 1.0 flee to Hebron, and when once you are joined to 
Christ you are safe. Christ will carry out what he un- 
dertakes, and if you join yourself to him, and trust your 
salvation to him, you will be able to stand in him to all 
eternity. 

I heard of a man who went into business out here in 
some of these western towns, where people said he was 
sure to fall ; but he didn't ; and after he had been get- 
ting along very well for some years, and showing no 
signs of failing, it was discovered that the man had a 
brother at the East who was very rich, and who helped 
him along from time to time. Just so with you, sinner ; 
you have a Brother who is very rich, and, if you are 
joined in partnership with Him, he will help you to hold 
out. It is those who are not joined to Christ who fail ; 
but they who are joined to him have power and grace. 
" They that trust the Lord shall not want any good 
thing." 



His Sermons. 337 

The name of the fourth city is Bezer; that means 
"fortified." " The Lord is a strong tower; the right- 
eous runneth into it and is safe." " None shall be able 
to pluck them out of my hand," says Christ. There is a 
fortress which all the powers of the world and all the 
devils in hell can never batter down. Flee to Bezer, 
and you will find yourself behind the fortifications cast 
up b} Christ himself. 

The fifth city is Ramoth ; that means " high." Flee 
to Ramoth, up out of the low lands of your old lusts, 
and passions, and appetites, up to the high places of 
communion with Christ. 

" And I, if I be lifted up," says Christ, " will draw all 
men unto me." If you will come to Christ he will lift 
you up above the world, above your old evil nature, and 
by and by he will raise you to the heights of his eternal 
glory. 

The last city is Golan, which means " exile." We are 
strangers and pilgrims in this world, Like Moses in 
Egypt, we are exiles from home, and we seek a better 
country, that is, a heavenly one. What we want is to 
get to Golan, get where we feel that we are not of this 
world, but belong to the kingdom of Christ. '• Our cit- 
izenship is in heaven." But after all, my friends, you 
haven't to flee to find the city of refuge. Christ is right 
here ; right at the door of your hearts. Give yourself to 
him ; make Christ your refuge to-day. 



33& Dwight L. Mood\ : 



CHRIST THE REDEEMER. 

The Blood Atonement in the Old Testament. 

I want to begin to-night with the second chapter of the 
Book of Genesis, the sixteenth and seventeenth verses : 
" And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of ev- 
ery tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : but of the 
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not 
eat of it : for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt 
surely die." 

This is a law, and if it is going to be of any force it 
must have a penalty. A law without a penalty isn't of any 
use. You might make a law that people shall not steal, 
but if there wasn't any penalty we should lose our watches 
before we could get home. There must be a penalty to all 
laws, and the penalty to this one is death. 

I used to stumble over that text. God tells Adam that 
in the day he transgresses he shall die, and yet he lives 
more than six hundred years afterward. But after study- 
ing my Bible awhile it began to get clearer to me. How 
did Adam die in the day he disobeyed God ? He lost the 
life of his soul ; he became dead to God ; got out of com- 
munion with him ; so that when God came down to see 
him he hid himself among the trees of the garden. 

God's chariot has two wheels, Grace and Government 
I always feel glad to think that sin was covered before 
Eden was lost. 

. God deals with Adam in grace betore he deals with 
him under the law. Here in the twenty-first verse of the 
third chapter of Genesis we read that God made Adam 



His Sermons. 339 

and his wife coats of skins before he drove them out 
of Eden. 

And now righ: here we find the Gospel doctrine of sub- 
stitution. The animals were slain — of course they must 
be killed before God could get their skins — and so death, 
the first death we find in the world, was a type of the 
death of the Lamb of God on Calvary. 

That is what the apostle preached ; Christ " was de- 
livered for our offenses, and was raised again for our 
justification." 

Now how can God be just and justify the sinner ? ] 
will tell you : Because God himself came down in the for n 
of sinful flesh and took upon him our nature, and died thai 
we might live. There is the doctrine of substitution. 

You don't believe in the doctrine of substitution ? Well, 
then, if you don't believe that you don't believe the Bible. 
I tell you, take the doctrine of substitution out of that 
Bible and I wouldn't carry it home with me. 

"The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's 
head " has run along down through the ages ever since 
Adam fell. 

Take the history of those first two worshipers, Cain and 
Abel. Abel believed in the doctrine of substitution, but 
Cain did not. 

I seem to hear Cain saying to himself: " I am not fond 
of shedding blood. I don't see why Abel must be always 
killing something for an offering to God. It seems to me 
much better to bring some of the fruits of the earth." 

But the Bible says that " the Lord had respect unto 
Abel and to his offering : but unto Cain and to his offering 
he had not respect." There are a great many Cainites in 



34^ Dwight L. Moody: 

the world in these days. Take care, my friends, not to dis- 
obey God, and neglect the blood of his Son, lest he, as in 
the case of Cain, reject both your offering and yourselves. 
You insult the Almighty by offering the work of your own 
hands to atone for you. 

Abel went to heaven by the way of the blood, and that 
is the way every other soul has gone to glory. We have 
a solo here from Mr. Sankey once in awhile. So I can 
imagine that when Abel went to heaven they had a solo 
there, for Abel could sing a song that none of them in 
heaven knew — the song of redemption by the blood of the 
Lamb. Now they sing it in grand chorus, for a great mul- 
titude have gone up on high, and they all sing the same 
words, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." 

In the eighth chapter of Exodus and at the twentieth 
verse, we find Noah opening the second era of the world 
by building an altar, and offering on it those clean beasts 
which God had taken care to have brought over the flood 
for that very purpose. 

The Scripture says that Abraham saw Christ's day, and 
was glad. Perhaps it was right there on the mountain 
when he was about to offer up his son. Perhaps God 
gave him a glimpse down the ages, and showed him the 
Saviour of the world climbing up the Mount of Calvary 
with the weight of all the sin of the world bearing him 
down. 

In the twelfth chapter of Exodus, and at the second 
verse, we read: "This month shall be unto you the begin- 
ning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to 
you," etc. What month was that ? The month which be- 
gan with the passover. All the time that Israel had been 



His Sermons. 341 

in Egypt was to go for nothing, and they were to begin to 
reckon from the blood ; that is, the blood of the paschal 
Iamb. My friends, our life don't start from the cradle, 
but from the cross of Christ. Noah began his reckoning 
from the altar set up after the flood, and when we reckon 
our years it is from the coming of the Lamb of God, who 
died to take away our sins. 

The death of Christ is our life. People say we ought 
to preach up Christ's life and character. But Christ didn't 
say we were to preach his life as the salvation of sinners. 
God didn't say, " Tie a living lamb to the doorpost, and 
when I see it I will pass over you." If that had been 
done, death would have passed over the living lamb and 
taken the first-born. It was death that kept death off; 
the only way to meet death is by death. The sentence 
has come, and I must either have some one to die for me 
or die myself. That is the lesson that God is trying to 
bring out — the great doctrine of substitution. The lambs 
were typical of the coming of the Lamb of God. They 
foreshadowed the scene at Calvary ; and they continued to 
be offered until Jesus Christ himself died for us. 

I can imagine some of the lords and dignitaries of 
Egypt riding through Goshen the day before the passover. 
They could hear the bleating of the lambs all through the 
province, for every man had either his lamb ready to kill 
or was killing it ; and they were sprinkling the blood upon 
the door-posts. 

I imagine I can hear those Egyptians saying, "Men! 
what are you doing ? Why are you putting blood upon 
your houses ? Why are you disfiguring your door-posts ?" 

<' Ah !" say the Hebrews, " it is going; to shelter us to- 



34 2 Dwight L. Moody: 

aight. It will be worth to us, at midnight, more than 
all Egypt." 

The men go away laughing together, and thinking 
that these Hebrews had gone clean mad. But ah ! at 
midnight they changed their minds. There was a wail 
that went up from every house. From the palace of the 
king down to the lowest hut death had come and taken his 
victim. He entered the palace of the rich and the hovel 
of the poor, and laid his icy hand upon the firstborn of all 
Egypt. But Israel was safe, sheltered behind the blood. 

The lamb must be pure and spotless, for the Lamb of 
God was spotless. The blood must be put on the door- 
post, not on the threshold ; God will not suffer the blood 
to be trampled on. And when all this was done, and 
death came round to slay the first-born, wherever he saw 
the blood, he said Death has been here already ; and so he 
left it and went on to the next house. Thus death kept 
death out. 

I have heard people wishing they were as good as this 
minister or that mother in Israel ; but I tell you, my 
friends, you are just as safe as any of them if you are only 
sheltered behind the blood. The smallest child in Goshen 
that night of the passover was just as safe behind the 
blood as Moses and Aaron themselves. The blood was 
the token which God had appointed ; nothing else was 
needed, nothing else was of any use. 

When I started for the east the other night the con- 
ductor came along and called out " Tickets ! " He didn't 
look at me at all, but he looked at the ticket. That was 
all right, and it made no difference to him who the pas- 
senger was. So with the blood. If we have the token— 



His Sermons. 343 

the blood of Christ applied to our souls — we are safe ; for 
that is all the law of God requires. Some one has said 
that a little fly in the ark was just as safe as the elephant : 
it wasn't the strength of the great beast that saved him ; 
it was the ark. 

I wish I had time to take you through the book of Le 
viticus ; it is all about worship, all full of types which have 
been fulfilled in Christ. 

There are one or two other verses we ought to no- 
tice : " Thus shall ye eat it ; with your loins girded, your 
shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand ; and ye 
shall eat it in haste : it is the Lord's passover." Now, 
there are many people who are satisfied with getting to 
Calvary; they forget to feed upon the Lamb, and so they 
get thin, and poor, and sickly. 

Here is a curious text that used to trouble me. I 
couldn't see what it meant. It is Leviticus viii, 23 : "And 
Moses took of the blood of the ram of consecration, and 
put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, and upon the 
thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his 
right foot." What is all that for ? 

Well, my friends, I'll tell you. The blood on the ear was 
to help him to hear the voice of God. If he didn't hear well 
he wouldn't teach well. Nobody can hear the voice of 
God till his ears have been sanctified. There was a time 
when God the Father spoke to his Son out of heaven, but 
the people that stood by said that it thundered ; they 
didn't know the difference between God's voice and thun- 
der. Then the blood on the right hand was to show that 
his work was consecrated to God. No man can do any 
good at working for God till he is washed in the blood of 



344 Dwight L. Moody: 

Christ. I never knew any one who didn't believe in the 
blood to have any power in prayer, or to be able to lead 
any souls into the kingdom of God. The blood on the 
foot was to show that Aaron was to walk in the way of 
God's commandments. 

In Leviticus xvii, n, we read the meaning of the blood: 
" For the life of the flesh is in the blood ; and I have given 
it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your 
souls : for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the 
soul." 

Here, then, is the doctrine of substitution : Christ — 
died — for — us. Moses taught it ; Isaiah taught it ; the 
Gospels teach it ; it is the scarlet thread that binds the 
whole Bible together ; it is the one lesson which God has 
to teach us. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth 
us from all sin. 

My friends, what will you do with the precious blood 
to-night ? 

A good many years ago, when the California gold-fever 
broke out, there was a young man who left a wife and little 
boy and went to California. He told his wife that as soon 
as he could he would send for her and his child. They 
watched and watched for the letter to come, bringing the 
money ; but he was not very successful, and it was a long 
rime before the money came to take them to the Pacific 
coast. But at last the letter did come, and that wife and 
little boy were full of delight. They went to New Yo 1 is 
and took their passage in one of those beautiful Pacific 
steamers, but they had not been at sea very long when, 
one beautiful day, all at once there was a cry *■( " Fire !" 

•'fire!" 



His Sermons. 345 

The pumps were set to work, but, in spite of ever)/ 
thing, the flames increased. There was a magazine of 
powder on board, and the captain knew the moment the 
fire touched it all would perish. The life-boats were low- 
ered, and the strongest of the passengers and crew sprang 
into them, and left the rest to die. Among the number 
left were that poor mother and her boy. The last life- 
boat was pushing away ; it was her last hope. She bent 
over that ship and begged them to take her boy and her- 
self ; but no — the crew said they didn't dare to take any 
more. She pleaded with them until at last one of the 
men said, "Let us take them ;" but the others cried out 
against it. At last they agreed to take one of them. 

What do you think she did ? Did the mother leap into 
the boat and leave the boy to perish ? But you, mothers, 
know that she wouldn't do that. She seized her darling 
boy ; pressed him to her heart ; handed him over the side ; 
and as she dropped him into the boat she said, 

" My son, if you live to see your father tell him that I 
died in your place." 

The boat pushed off, and in a little while that vessel 
was blown up, and that mother perished. 

Young men, what would you say of that son if he should 
speak disrespectfully of his mother ? You would say he 
wasn't fit to live. 

And what shall be said of you if you refuse to give 
y,ur heart to Him who has purchased you with his owtt 
blood ? 



346 Dwight L. Moody : 

The Blood Atonement in the New Testament. 

Last night I was talking about " The Blood " as it is set 
forth in the Old Testament. To-night I wish to call 
your attention to some things said about it in the New 
Testament. A lady once wrote me a letter saying she 
had followed our work with great interest both in England 
and in this country, but when she heard of my preaching 
about the blood she was thoroughly displeased with me. 
" Where," she asked, " did Jesus ever teach the barbarous, 
monstrous doctrine, that men are to be saved by means of 
his blood ? " 

Well, my friends, I'll tell you. In the fourteenth chap- 
ter of Mark, twenty-fourth verse, Christ says to his disci- 
ples, "This is my blood of the new testament, which is 
shed for many." Also in Luke xxii, 20, he says, " This 
cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for 
you." There are plenty more texts to the same purpose, 
but these are enough to answer the question. If Christ 
did not teach, and if the apostles and the early Church 
did not believe, the doctrine of the vicarious atonement 
of Jesus Christ, then I haven't got the key to this book 
at all. 

A young minister once came to me in England and 
said, " Either you are wrong Oi I am." 

" What about ? " said I. 

" Why, about this being saved by the blood of Christ." 
And then he went on to say that he did not believe one 
word of my sermon on " The Blood ; " he thought and 
preached that it was the life, and not the death, of Christ 
that was the means of saving men's souls. 




P. P. BLISS. 



His Sermons. 347 

** Do you have any body converted under that doctrine ? " 
said I. 

" O, no ; I don't work for that ; I preach morality to my 
people, and expect them to be saved gradually by culture* 
and education in the truth." 

" Why," said I, " I should feel as if religion was all a 
sham if, with these texts in the word of God, your notions 
of it were true." 

" And I myself sometimes think it a sham," he re- 
plied. 

So I read him some texts : " Who his own self bare 

. our sins in his own body on the tree ; " " the blood of 

Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin ; " and a good 

many more of the same sort, and he didn't know what 

to do with them. 

Let us take John xix, 34 : " But one of the soldiers with 
a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout 
blood and water." That was the crowning act of hell ; but 
when that spear pierced his side, his heart's blood covered 
and glorified the spear ; so every thing that is touched 
by the blood of Christ is sanctified. Even this earth is 
redeemed by it, and some day will exchange its thorns and 
briars for roses and myrtles. 

In 1 Peter i, 18, 19, we read: " Ye were not redeemed 
with corruptible things, as silver and gold, . . . but with the 
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemiyh 
and without spot." " Redeem " means, to bring back. A 
friend of mine near Dublin was illustrating it to me in 
this way : he said he was walking out in the fields one 
day, and came across a boy with a sparrow in his hand 
which he had caught. The gentleman tried to persuade 
23 



348 Dwight L. Moody: 

the boy to let it go ; but he answered, " Indade, sur, an 
haven't I been chasin' him for half an hour, and d'ye 'spose 
I'd be afther lettin' him go ? " So the man offered to buy 
him, and when he had paid the price that the little fel- 
low asked for the bird, he took it up and laid it in the 
open palm of his hand. The little thing had been over- 
powered with fear, but presently fluttered its wings a lit- 
tle, and then soared away into the air singing as plain as 
it could speak, " Thank you ! thank you ! " So, my friends, 
we have been in the hands of the devil these six thou- 
sand years ; he is too strong for us ; he is older and 
wiser than we ; but Christ has bought us, not of the 
devil, but of the law of God, which had sentenced us to 
die, and we ought to fill all the air with songs of thanks- 
giving. 

Now the blood has two cries, salvation and damnation. 
God said to Cain, "Thy brother's blood crieth unto me 
from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the 
earth;" but in Colossians i, 20, we find the blood of 
Christ making peace for us, and reconciling us to God. 
Some of you don't believe in being saved by the blood : 
tell me how you are going to get rid of this passage in 
Hebrews ix, 22 : " Without shedding of blood is no re- 
mission." What hope have you if you reject this only 
means by which your sins may be remitted ? In Hebrews 
x, 20, we are told that the new and living way by which we 
may enter into the holy place is through the vail of Christ's 
flesh. You know that when Christ died God rent the 
vail of the temple from top to bottom ; not from bottom to 
top ; the work was done from above ; and that is to signify 
that the way into God's kingdom is opened by the offering 



His Sermons. 349 

of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole 
world. You don't need a priest, or bishop, or pope to 
help you ; come yourself, come boldly, come all alone ; the 
way is open, even into the holy of holies. 

There are a good many other passages I would like to 
notice, but I must hasten on. Take this one, Rev. xii, 11 ; 
" And they overcame him [that is, the devil] by the blood 
of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." There 
is nothing that the devil hates and fears so much as the 
blood of the Son of God. He likes to get ministers to 
touch lightly on it ; and if he could keep them from preach- 
ing it at all he wouldn't care how much they preached 
other things : but I tell you a minister may just as well 
sit down on a curbstone and whittle shavings as to go in- 
to the pulpit and preach if he does not preach redemption, 
substitution, and salvation, by the blood of the Lamb. 
There may be great crowds attending his ministry, but 
his work will all go to nothing unless he is faithful to this 
central doctrine of Christian faith. 

An old minister who had preached the Gospel for fifty 
years was dying. He called for the Bible, and said, 
" Find me the First Epistle of John, the first chapter and 
the seventh verse ; " and when they found it for him he 
put his trembling finger on it and said, "T die in the faith 
of that verse." What is it ? " The blood of Jesus Christ 
his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 

"I am on the down grade and can't find the brake," 
said a dying man who used to be a driver on the overland 
stage line. " I am sweeping through the gates, washed 
in the blood of the Lamb," said Alfred Cookman. My 
friends, when Christ ascended to heaven he left his blood 



35° Dwight L. Moody: 

behind ; it was shed on Calvary, and there it has remained 
for us. What will you do with the blood of the Lamb ? 
Will you accept it ? Will you let it wash away your sins ? 

Now the blood is on the mercy-seat: while 'it is there 
God says, " I cannot see your sins, I am looking at 
the blood." O press toward the mercy-seat while the 
blood is on it, and God will accept your poor sinful souls 
for the sake of the blood of his Son. 

In i Corinthians xv, 3, we are told that " Christ died 
foi our sins." I wish I could get every one here to believe 
that: to say, not, he died for all mankind, but, he died fo? 
me. I have often thought that if I could make this doc- 
trine real — if I could tell the story of the cross so that 
people would see it and feel it — I would go around and 
tell it, and preach nothing else. 

We take up the Bible, and read the account of his cruci- 
fixion and death — how he suffered in agony — and we go 
away, lay the Bible down, and think nothing more about 
it. I remember when the war was going on I would read 
about a great battle having been fought, where probably 
ten thousand men had been killed and wounded, and after 
reading the article I would lay the paper aside and forget 
all about it. At last I went into the army myself. I was 
at Fort Donelson and Pittsburgh Landing. I saw the dy- 
ing men — I heard the groans of the wounded — I helped 
to comfort the dying and to bury the dead ; I saw the 
scene in all its terrible realities ; and after I had been on 
the battle field I could not read an account of a battle 
without it making a profound impression upon me. I 
wish I could bring before you in living colors the suffer- 
ings and death of Christ. 



His Sermons. 351 

When a great man dies we are all anxious to get his 
last words ; and if it is a friend, how we treasure up that 
last word — how we tell it to his friends ! And we neve) 
tire talking about our loved ones, and how they made 
their departure from the world. 

Now, let us visit Calvary ; let us go back in our imag- 
ination to the time of Christ's crucifixion ; let us imagine 
we are living in the city of Jerusalem, and that it is the 
last Thursday before he was crucified. Let us just im- 
agine we are on one of the streets of Jerusalem. You 
see a small body of men walking down the street. As we 
get nearer we find that it is Jesus and his apostles. We 
just walk down the street with them and we see them 
stop before a very common looking house. They go in, 
and we enter also, and there we find Jesus sitting with the 
apostles. You can see sorrow depicted upon his brow. 
We are told that " he was sorrowful unto death." 

While he was sitting there he said to the twelve, " One 
of you shall betray me." Then each of them wondered if 
he were the one of whom the Master spoke,- and they said, 
"Is it I?" Then Judas, the traitor, asked, " Is it I?" 
"Judas, what thou doest do quickly," said the Saviour, 
and Judas got up and left the room. For three years he 
had been associated with the Son of God. For three 
years he had sat at the feet of Jesus. For three years he 
had heard those words of sympathy and love fall from his 
lips. He had seen him perform his wonderful miracles. 
He had heard the parables as they fell from his lips. For 
three years he had been a member of that little band, 
but now he gets up and goes out into the night, the dark- 
est night this world ever saw. You can hear him as he 



352 Dwight L. Moody: 

goes down those steps off into the darkness and black- 
ness of the night. He goes to the Sanhedrin and says, 
" What will you give me ? " 

" Thirty pieces of silver." 

That was a small amount. Men condemn Judas ; but 
how many are selling him for less than that ? How many 
will give him up for less than that ? 

It was on that night that Jesus said, "Let not your 
hearts be troubled. ... I go to prepare a place for you. 
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, 
. . . that where I am there ye may be also." Instead of the 
disciples trying to cheer him, he is trying to cheer them. 
He takes Peter, James, and John off from the rest, and 
then he withdraws from them about a stone's throw, and 
there he prayed to the Father. He that knew no sin was to 
bear all our sins. He who was as spotless as the angels 
of heaven was to suffer for us. When he gets up from 
prayer he sees in the distance a band of men with lanterns 
and torches, and he knows they are looking for him. He 
went up to this band of men and said, " Whom seek ye ? " 
And they said, " We seek Jesus of Nazareth." 

" I am he." 

Mr. Moody concluded the discourse with a vivid description of the 
scenes and events of the last hours of Christ, so life-like as to be 
absolutely painful, and in a style which it is impossible to reproduce 
to the mind of one who only i^ears it through his eyes. The trial be- 
fore Pilate, the condemnation, the scourging, the crown of thorns, 
the mockery at the house of Herod, the cry of " Crucify him ! crucify 
him ! " the journey to Calvary, the nailing of his blessed body to the 
cross, his death-cry, the darkness, the earthquake, the spear-thrust, 
and at last, the descent from the cross, were all pictured so as to bring 
home to the vast congregation the sacred and awful truth of the 
vicarious death of the Son of God. 



His Sermons. 353 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

After reading the account of the resurrection of Christ, found in 
the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel by St. Mark, Mr. Moody said :— 

A good many people seem to think that Christ's res- 
urrection was only a spiritual matter, and that his body 
laid in the grave and became food for worms, just like 
any other dead body. But the Gospels are very full 
and plain on this point. Not less than forty-two times is 
this blessed doctrine spoken of by Christ himself before 
his death, as well as by his disciples afterward. In Mat- 
thew xvi, 21, we find, "From that time forth began Jesus 
to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Je- 
rusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief 
priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the 
third day." In Matthew xvii, 9, Jesus charged his disci- 
ples saying, "Tell the vision [that is, the vision of the 
transfiguration] to no man, until the Son of man be risen 
again from the dead." In Mark ix, 9, 10, the same thing 
is repeated. These are only a few of the many places 
where Christ and his disciples declare the fact of his res- 
urrection from the dead. The disciples seemed to have 
two chief texts to preach from : the death of Christ and 
the resurrectjpn of Christ. These were the two hinges of 
the door leading into God's kingdom. These were the 
two foundation-stones on which that kingdom was built. 

In Matthew xii, 39, the Jews come to Christ and ask 
him to give them a sign, and he tells them that no sign 
shall be given them but the sign of Jonah the prophet 
What was that sign ? The sign of the resurrection. 



354 Dwight L. Moody: 

No doubt the captain of that ship on which Jonah took 
passage came to Nineveh, and told the story of the man 
whom they had been obliged to cast overboard, and that 
the last they saw of him was his heels as he went into 
the belly of that whale. Some people say that a whale's 
throat isn't big enough to swallow a man, but the Script- 
ure puts that all right. It says, "The Lord prepared a 
great fish/" and he could do that as well as any thing else. 

A few days after whom should those Ninevite sailors 
see but Jonah, whom they knew had been swallowed. 
What could it mean ? Here is a man come back from 
death ! Surely, his message must be important. 

" You want a sign, do you ? " says Christ. " Well, you 
shall have one : as Jonah was three days and three nights 
in the whale's belly : so shall the Son of man be three days 
and three nights in the heart of the earth." There was 
death and there was resurrection. 

Did you ever stop to think what darkness would settle 
down upon the world if it were not for this doctrine of the 
resurrection ? How I pity those men who try to deny it. 
They are like Samson, pulling the house down upon their 
own heads. 

In the sixth chapter of John's Gospel Christ tells tiis 
disciples three or four times, " I will raise him up at the 
last day." 

There is, then, a resurrection for us also. 

Bat let us keep to the resurrection of Christ. You re 
member that in a previous sermon we left him lying in the 
sepulcher in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea, where he 
had received a kingly burial, being embalmed with a hun- 
dred pounds of sweet spices, as the manner of the Jews is 



His Sermons. 355 

to bury. If you could have seen Death on his throne just 
then you would have seen him exulting over the Son of 
God, and you might have heard him say, " Ah, yes, Jesus 
pays his tribute to me. Only two, Enoch and Elijah, ever 
escaped me." But even then his hands begin to grow 
warm — those same hands that bad been nailed to the cross 
— life comes back into that body which had been pierced 
by the soldier's spear ; he burst the bands of death ; he 
broke the bars of the grave, and came forth according to 
his word, conquering death and hell for us as well as for 
himself. 

Mr. Moody then, in his scenic and effective style, pictured the events 
of the resurrection morning, and of the eleven times when the risen 
Saviour was seen by his friends and disciples after his resurrection. 
The first of these was his appearance to Mary Magdalene ; the second, 
as we find in i Corinthians xv, 5, 6, was to Cephas or Peter ; the 
third, to the two disciples at Emmaus ; the fourth, to the ten disci- 
ples as they sat at meat together ; the fifth, about a week afterward 
to the eleven, Thomas, who was absent before, this time being with 
them ; the sixth, to the disciples as they were sitting in their boats 
near the shore, having toiled all night and taken nothing, and then at 
his command they let down their nets once more and " made a great 
haul;" the seventh, his appearance to above five hundred brethren 
at once somewhere among the mountains of Galilee ; the eighth, his 
appearance to James, mentioned in 1 Corinthians xv, 7 ; the ninth, 
the time when he appeared to his disciples and led them out as far 
as Bethany, where he ascended, and a cloud received him out of their 
sight ; the tenth, his appearance to the martyr Stephen, who, when 
he was about to die, saw him standing at the right hand of God ; and, 
last, his appearance to Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus. Ht 
closed by advising more study of the subject of the resurrection 0/ 
Christ. 



356 Dwight L. Moody: 



JESUS THE ANOINTED. 

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to 
preach the Gospel to the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the broken- 
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight 
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the accepta- 
ble year of the Lord. — Luke iv, 18, 19. 

This was Christ's inaugural sermon. 

After he had read the passage as recorded by the 
prophet Isaiah he closed the book, and began to say unto 
them, " This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." 

It was a sermon at Nazareth, among his own towns- 
people. He had been to the Jordan ; John the Baptist had 
baptized him, and the people had heard a strange voice 
which spoke from heaven when he came up out of the 
water. Now he has come back they no doubt expect 
some great thing from him — and they get it. Christ 
preached the Gospel to them. 

A great many people don't know what " gospel " means. 
It means good spell, or God's spell, the same as is meant 
in my text by " the acceptable year of the Lord." 

In that sixty-first chapter of Isaiah Christ stopped right 
in the middle of the sentence ; there were seven things 
he had come to do, but he omitted to say any thing about 
"the day of vengeance of our God." His business, then, 
was to preach the Gospel ; so he stopped at thai place 
and shut up the book. But he will come back again by 
and by, and open it again, and commence where he left 
off. Now he is on the mercy-seat ; but then, when you 
cry for mercy, you will find that vengeance has begun. 

One proof that people do not believe the Bible is, thai 



His Sermons. 357 

they wear long faces when they are invited to come to 
Christ, as if they had been invited to attend a funeral or 
an execution. The Gospel is good tidings of great joy. 
No better news ever fell upon mortal ears than the Gospel 
of the Son of God. 

Christ here tells his neighbors what he was anointed to 
do. We find that Moses wa? anointed, and that when he 
went down to Egypt terrible plagues fell upon the Egyp- 
tians ; Elijah was anointed of God for the work of a 
prophet, and he called down fire from heaven ; Gideon 
was anointed as a leader of the Lord's hosts, and he slew 
his enemies by thousands ; the Spirit of God came upon 
Samson, and he did the same thing ; but when Christ 
comes he says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, not to 
take away men's lives, but to save them from death. The 
only man that ever really lost any thing through Christ 
was the man whose ear Peter cut off, and in less than five 
minutes he got it back again just as good as ever. 

I like the Gospel because it came to destroy four of my 
worst enemies. The first of these is death. Up in that 
little village in New England where I came from they 
used to toll the bell when any one died, striking it once 
for every year. I used to think when the bell struck 
seventy, and sometimes eighty, Ah, death is a good 
way off ; but sometimes it only struck a few times, and 
then it used to seem very solemn. 

The thought of death used to trouble me so that some- 
times I couldn't sleep in a room alone ; but, thanks be unto 
God, who giveth us the victory, it doesn't trouble me any 
now. I have learned to answer that question, " O death, 
where is thy sting ? " by replying — 



35& Dwight L. Moody i 

Buried in the bosom of the Son of God ! 

There is a psalm which some people always quote 
wrong : " When I pass through the dark valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil." But there isn't 
any " dark " there. Men put it there ; God does not 
That valley is not dark any more since Jesus Christ went 
through it. He seized death and bound him hand and 
foot, and took away all his power over those who believe 
in the Son of God. The only dark thing that is left there 
now is the shadow of death ; but you know there is noth- 
ing terrible in a shadow ; the substance isn't there any 
more. 

' Another enemy which the Gospel of Christ destroys 
ts sin.* Sin brought death into the world, but Christ 
takes sin away. 

Can you find any thing of a cloud after it has vanished 
from the sky ? Well, God has promised to blot out our 
sins as a cloud, and our iniquities as a thick cloud. 

Another enemy is the grave. 

It used to frighten me to hear the earth falling on the 
coffins, but now I hear the voice of Christ, saying : — 

" I will raise him up at the last day." 

The fourth enemy that I used to be afraid of is, the 
judgment. 

But now the judgment for sin has passed. Christ has 
been judged for us ; Christ has been condemned for us ; 
Christ has been slain for us, the just for the unjust. 
There is to be a day of judgment to settle the rewards of 
our stewardship, but no more judgment for our sins if we 
have accepted Christ, who was judged, condemned, and 
slain in our stead. The Gospel says of the believer in 



His Sermons. 359 

Christ, he "shall not come into condemnation; but is 
passed from death unto life." 

That is the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; and do you think 
people ought to be gloomy or to put on long faces when 
they hear it ? 

Away out on the prairie, out in the western country, in 
the autumn, when there hasn't been any rain for months, 
sometimes the prairie grass catches fire, and if there 
comes up a very strong wind, the flames just roll along in 
a wall of fire twenty feet high, and go sometimes at the 
rate of twenty miles an hour. 

When the frontier men see it coming what do they do ? 
They know they cannot run as fast as the fire can. Not 
the fleetest horse can escape from that fire. They just 
take a match and light the grass around them, and then 
they get into the burnt place, and are safe. They hear 
the flames roar ; they see death coming towards them ; 
but they do not fear, they do not tremble ; because 
the fire has passed over the place where they are, and 
there is no danger. There is nothing for the fire to burn. 

There is one mountain peak that the wrath of God has 
swept over — that is mount Calvary ; and that fire spent its 
fury upon the bosom of the Son of God. Take your stand 
here by his cross, where Christ died for you, and you will 
be safe for time and eternity. 

I have read of a Russian nobleman whose son was wild 
and unmanageable, so he sent him into the army, hoping 
the strict discipline might correct him ; but he made a 
very great mistake in supposing that a change of circum- 
stances would save the boy ; what he needed is just what 
all sinners need — a change of heart. 



360 Dwight L. Moody: 

Instead of growing better, this young man got worse 
and worse. He borrowed money as long as he could, and 
spent it in gambling and dissipation, and when at last 
he could borrow no longer, he was sued for debt and was 
.n danger of being sent to prison. 

On the night before he was to be tried as a defaulter he 
sat in his barracks, thinking over his wicked course. 
After awhile he took a piece of paper and wrote down 
upon it all the sums of money he owed, that he might 
see how bad his case really was. It made a long, long 
list, and when he came to add it up he was altogether 
in despair. Then he wrote underneath the figures these 
words : " Who will pay all these debts for me ? " and 
with his head bowed upon the barrack table, he wept 
himself to sleep. 

It chanced that the emperor, who was accustomed to 
go about in disguise, came that night at a late hour 
through these barracks where the young soldier was 
asleep. Noticing him there, and the paper beside him, 
he guessed at once what was the matter. So he took the 
paper and read it : then, without awaking the broken- 
hearted boy, he wrote under the question, " Who will pay 
all these debts for me ?" the single word Nicholas. 

When the young soldier awoke and looked again at the 
paper he was overwhelmed with surprise to see the signa- 
ture of the emperor underneath his list of debts. It 
seemed too good to be true, but early in the morning sure 
enough the money came from the emperor ; he paid all 
his debts, and was saved from a felon's cell. 

I don't know whether this story is true or not, but I 
know that a greater Emperor than Nicholas has paid my 




MONUMENT TO P. P. BLISS, 



Erected by the Sunday-Schools of the United States and Great Britain 
in response to the invitation of D. L. Moody. 



His Sermons. 361 

long list of debts and sins, and in his glorious love and 
mercy I am a free man. No prison for me ; no condem- 
nation for me : — 

"Jesus paid it all, 

All the debt I owe ; 
Sin had left a crimson stain ; 
He washed it white as snow." 

II. 

" He hath sent me to heal the bro>~n-hearted." 

The next thing that Christ says he came to do is to heal 
the broken-hearted ; to carry our sorrows as well as to 
atone for sins. I often wonder why so many people with 
broken hearts persist in carrying their sorrow, when Christ 
offers to carry it for them and they might cast their bur- 
den upon him. 

There is no class of people who are free from broken hearts. 
Some years ago I used to visit from house to house among 
the poor of this city, and since then T have made the ac- 
quaintance of a good many people who were rich, but I find 
broken hearts every-where, among rich and poor, high and 
low, wise and ignorant. There are no hearts strong enough 
to stand the strain and the blows of this sorrowful world. 

I made five calls one day, and at every house I found a 
broken heart. The first was a mother whose son had 
come home drunk the night before : she had never known 
of his bad habits until then. The next was a mother 
whose little family of children had been broken by death 
since my last visit. The third was a wife whose husband 
had cruelly deserted her, and she neither knew where he 
was nor how she was to live through the winter, which 
was then coming on. I need not tell you the others, but 
24 



362 Dwight L. Moody: 

.n every house I entered that afternoon there was an af- 
flicted heart. 

I met a young man at the inquiry-meeting last night 
who had been so full of grief and despair that he said he 
had been down to the lake night after night, looked into 
its dark waters, and half resolved to take the deadly plunge. 

If all the sorrows in this city were written down, this 
building couldn't hold the books which would be written. 
Ever since Adam was driven out of Eden this world has 
been no stranger to tears, and I wonder how it is that so 
many people can stay away from Christ, who offers to 
bear our griefs and carry our sorrows if we will only lay 
them on him. The Bible tells us of Jacob weeping over 
the bloody coat of his darling Joseph ; of the tears of 
David as he went up to his chamber, crying oui., " O Ab- 
salom, would to God I had died for thee!" And among 
the first sounds the Son of God heard when he came into 
this world were the voices of those Bethlehem mothers, 
weeping over the loss of their infant sons killed by the 
soldiers of Herod. 

I want to call your attention to that little word " sent." 
" He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted/ My 
friends, no matter how great a work any man has to do, 
he will be certain to succeed in it if only God has sent 
him. God sent Moses down to Egypt to bring out three 
millions of slaves. When he got there the proud King 
Pharaoh said they shouldn't go, but that didn't make any 
difference with Moses. God had sent him, and he was 
certain to succeed. God sent Joshua to capture the land 
of Canaan. The cities were great, and walled up to heav- 
en ; but when the proper time came, the walls of Jericb< 



His Sermons. 363 

fell down. God sent Gideon, and Samson, and Elisha 
against great odds, but never one of them failed. And if 
the Son of God is "sent to heal the broken-hearted" — if 
God sends him — is he not certain to succeed ? 

If you break your arm or your leg, you straightway :all 
a doctor to mend it for you ; but if you break your heart 
what are you going to do ? 

In the time of Christ they didn't have any hospitals, but 
if there were people sick in the house they brought them 
to the door that people passing by might see them ; and 
if any one went by who had suffered from such disease he 
would stop and tell the sick man how he had been cured. 
Sometimes this worked well enough, but a great many sick 
people never found any one who knew the right remedy. 
When the Son of God came and walked along those roads 
they brought out the sick people for him to see, and every 
one that was brought to him was healed. He only spoke 
the word and it was done. He knew a remedy for all the 
diseases. He has still a balm for every wound. He knows 
how to heal the suffering soul as well as the broken and 
wounded body ; and yet you try to carry all your heavy 
sorrows yourselves, instead of laying them on him. You 
try every other doctor before you come to the great 
Physician. 

I know two wives in this city whose husbands are 
dead, and they utterly refuse to be comforted ; they will 
die of broken hearts before long unless they learn to cast 
their cares on Him who careth for them. 

Three years ago a gentleman in this city took his wife 
and four children to New York and put ihem on that 
French steamer to cross the ocean. There was a co 1 



364 Dwight L. Moody: 

.ision, and the mother, with her children around her, went 
down on the deck of that vessel. She was afterward 
picked up, but the children were never found. When 
she reached England and I heard of the awful calamity, 
Lleft my work and hastened down to comfort 1 ie childless, 
broken-hearted mother. But I found that Jesus had been 
there before me. It seemed as if she had been permitted 
to take her little family right up to the gates of heaven, 
see them safely in, and then came back again for a little 
while to do some more work for the Master. Those chil- 
dren used to come to our North Side meeting with their 
mother, and one night they said, " Mamma, may we not go 
with the rest into the inquiry room and learn how to come 
to Jesus ? " The mother brought them in, and in a little 
while they were soundly, intelligently converted, and we 
received them as members of the Church ; and now Christ 
had taken the children all at once to himself, but he did 
not forget to bind up the heart that must otherwise have 
broken. That mother herself was telling this sad story at 
the woman's meeting in Farwell Hall the other day, or I 
should not have felt at liberty to tell it here. 

A mother once came to me and said, " I have a boy who 
is a wanderer. I know not where he is. I would go to 
the ends of the earth if I could only find him ; and ho^ 
can I cast such a burden as that upon the Lord?" 

" Do you not think he could carry it ? " said I. 

" Yes ; but I cannot cast it off." 

" Well, then, do not blame Christ for not carrying it, so 
iong as you will not let him have it." 

" But how am I ever to be comforted if I never can reach 
my lost boy ? " 



His Sermons. 365 

" You can reach him by way of the throne," said I. 

Then I told her of some people down in Indiana whose 
son came to this city, and before he had been here many 
weeks was seen by one of his old neighbors lying drunk 
on the street. The man didn't like to tell his parents, but 
at last he thought if his own boy had been seen in that 
condition he should certainly want to know it, so he told 
the father, and the father told the mother. They did not 
sleep any that night. They wrestled all night in prayer for 
their lost boy, and just as the morning dawned his mother 
said, "I have an answer from the Lord. I don't know 
when our son is going to be saved, but God has told me 
that he shall not die a drunkard." One week from that day 
that young man started for his home, three hundred miles 
away, and as he entered the door he said, " Mother, I have 
come to ask you to pray for my soul." It was not long 
before he was happily converted, and then he returned to 
Chicago to become a useful and active Christian. 

But some one says, " How shall I come to Christ with 
my troubles?" Come to him feeling and believing him 
to be your personal friend. Pour out all your sorrows be- 
fore him. He has time enough to hear them all. 

Mr. Moody then related the familiar story of the little girl who 
went to President Lincoln in behalf of her brother who had been con- 
demned to be shot for sleeping at his post. He had taken the picket 
duty of a friend the night before, and thus was on watch two m'ghts 
in succession. The intercession of this little sister saved his life, and 
Mr. Lincoln gave him a furlough to visit his home for her sake. 

But don't think for a moment that the tender heart of 
that great man can for one moment be compared with the 
tenderness of the Lord Jesus Christ. His compassion is 
infinite. He pitied us so much and loved us so well that 



366 Dwight L. Moody: 

ne gave his very life to save us. Come, then, to Christ 
with all your sorrows as well as with all your sins." 

TIL 

" ^o preach deliverance to the captives." 

Now let us take the third clause of the verse : " To 
preach deliverance to the captives." In the forty-ninth 
chapter of Isaiah, at the twenty-fourth verse, are these 
words : " Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the 
lawful captive delivered ? " 

" Yes," says the Lord Jesus Christ, " I am come for that 
very purpose." Now, my friends, just ask yourselves the 
question, whether a sinner can forgive himself, or a con- 
victed criminal save himself from the penalty of the law 
he has broken. If he is to be delivered at all there must 
be a deliverer, for he cannot deliver himself. This text 
tells us who the deliverer is — Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God. Suppose I were to tell you that there is no way for 
you to escape from the perdition of ungodly men — that 
eternal death is certainly waiting for you — and that noth- 
ing can possibly save you from it — you would all reject 
such doctrine. Even the thieves and gamblers who have 
strayed in here to-night would reject such terrible doctrine 
as that. 

Mr. George H. Stuart told me that he was once asked 
by Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, to go and tell a 
man who had been condemned to die for murder that 
there was no hope of his being pardoned. When he went 
into the cell the wretched man said to him : " You are a 
good man. You have come to bring me good news.'* 
A.nd when he heard the message the governor had sent 



His Sermons. 367 

he fainted away. It is an awful thing to have the last 
hope taken away. But, thanks be to God ! there is hope 
for the blackest-hearted sinner in the love and mercy of 
Jesus Christ. 

You are a lawful captive : you are under just condemna- 
tion for your sins. Read the Bible carefully and you will 
find that it talks altogether different about human nature 
from what some of our modern ministers do. The devil 
has all the while been preaching up the greatness of man, 
and some men in our pulpits are doing the same thing. 
Satan has been busy for eighteen hundred years binding 
men in his chains and making captives of them, and 
Christ says he has come to set the captives free. 

Satan goes about his work very slily. He winds around 
us a golden spider's web, which we could blow away with 
a breath ; then he binds us with a thread ; and we say, " O, 
that is nothing ; I can break that any time." But he goes 
on winding his threads around us, and they get larger and 
stronger all the time, till at last he has bound us hand 
and foot, and then he mocks our helpless sorrow and our 
vain struggles to get away. 

The Son of God has power to break every band and fetter, 
to deliver every captive, and to let the oppressed go free. 

But the first thing for us to understand is the fact that 
we are really captives. Do any of you doubt it ? Let me 
just ask you a question or two. How many times have you 
thought over your sins and made up your mind to forsake 
them ? Perhaps you have been in the habit of swearing, 
and have resolved to stop. And how have you succeeded ? 
Didn't you find the same old oaths and curses jumping 
out every time you got mad ? Didn't you find that the 



368 Dwight L. Moody: 

ftld habit was too strong for you ? Ah, my friend, that 
shows that Satan has captured you and bound you in that 
terrible habit of blaspheming, and you will never be able 
to get free without the help of Christ the deliverer. 

But suppose you can break off all your sins, what are 
you going to do with your past sins ? 

I'll tell you what to do with them — bring them to 
Christ. Do you want to stop swearing ? Come to Christ 
and ask him to give you a new heart, a heart that hasn't 
any curses in it, and then you will be free from that chain 
of the devil. You have a quick temper ; well, bring it to 
Christ, and he will give you a new temper. Just give up 
all hope of being able to save yourself, and let the Lord 
deliver you. Just let the cry go up, "I am a captive," 
and see how quick Jesus Christ will come to your de- 
liverance ! 

I remember hearing of a little fellow who was met on 
his way home from school by a great ruffianly boy, a good 
deal bigger than he was, who tried to pick a quarrel with 
him. " I can't fight you," said the little boy, " but you 
just wait till I go and fetch my big brother," and he ran 
off as hard as he could to find his big brother ; but. when 
they came back the coward wasn't there. 

My friends, you are no match for Satan, and when he 
wants to fight you just run to your elder Brother, who is 
more than a match for all the devils in hell. 

Society is divided into a great many different classes, 
but God only knows c wo classes. The cross of Caivary 
divided the world into these two classes : those who are 
under the power of Satan, and those who are under the 
grace of Jesus Christ. 



His Sermons. 369 

Who is your master ? Have you never been delivered 
from the power of that slavery into which you were born ? 
Then change masters here to-night. Satan will hold you 
tighter and tighter. He don't care at all what sort of 
chains he binds you with, so that you are bound ; or in 
what sort of a chariot you ride to ruin. He is just as 
willing you should go down to hell from a soft-cushioned 
pew in one of these fine churches as in any other way, so 
as he can only get you. But if you choose to be on the 
Lord's side to-night — give yourself to God to-night, trust- 
ing wholly and solely in him — he will take you by his right 
hand, and lead you right past any saloon or billiard-hall, or 
any other place of iniquity, without your having the slight- 
est wish for the old-time pleasure and the old-time sin. 

Don't forget that it is Christ who is the deliverer, not 
the Church. All the Churches in the world never yet 
saved one sinner, but Christ has saved a great many, and 
he is ready and waiting to save you. 

There was a struggle on Calvary between the lion of 
hell and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The waves of 
death broke upon the Son of God on the cross, like the 
angry ocean dashing its fierce waves against the rocks of 
the shore. Look at those fiends as they rush upon the 
Man of Sorrows nailed there upon the cross ! But all 
at once he cries out, " It is finished ! " Victory over 
death and hell ! Up, up, up, he goes, and takes his place 
upon the mercy-seat. O ! I had a great deal rather have 
him there than anywhere else. Where else could he be 
of so much help to us as at the right hand of the Father ? 

1 have never known a sinner to come down into the 
dust before Christ but that Christ lifted him up. Down. 



370 Dwight L. Moody: 

there in the inquiry room, sometin.es, it seems as if we 
"ould hear the footsteps of the Son of God coming to 
deliver those poor captive souls. But when any body 
feels too proud to confess his sins, that man doesn't get 
out of prison at all. 

When General Grant went into Richmond I went in 
with him, and started to find our boys down in Libby 
Prison. Nobody had told them how near our army was, 
and the first they knew of our victory they heard our col- 
umns marching up the street, the band playing " The 
Star Spangled Banner." Then the prison doors were 
thrown open, and in a moment they were free. So it 
shall be with you sinners, bound in the captivity of your 
own lust, or passion, or appetite, or habit. Let Christ 
come and unbar the prison, and in a moment you are 
free. 

IV. 

" Recovering of sight to the blind." 

I want to take up one more clause of this verse — " the 
recovering of sight to the blind." 

Satan breaks men's hearts, Christ binds them up ; 
Satan takes men captive, Christ delivers them ; Satan 
blinds men, Christ opens their eyes. 

How blind those people of Nazareth must have been 
when they brought the Son of God to the brow of the hill, 
and were going to cast him down because he preached the 
Gospel to them ! 

How bimd those people were who wanted to drive him 
away from the coasts, after he had cast out the devils 
from the man among the tombs, just because they had 
lost some swine ! 



His Sermons. 371 

How blind they were wno condemned hini, and brought 
him to Calvary, and nailed him to the cross ! 

They tell us there are about three millions of blind 
people in the world, but I wonder how many millions there 
are who are spiritually blind ? We have a very tender 
sympathy for those who have no sight, especially for those 
who have been born blind ; but it wouldn't take fifteen 
minutes to show you that almost all the people in Chicago 
are in that condition, as far as spiritual sight is con- 
cerned : even the Church hasn't got its eyes more than 
half open. 

At one of our meetings in London one night, a man 
was speaking with great power, and when I asked who it 
was, they told me it was Dr. Moon, the blind man, who 
had translated the Bible into seventy-two languages in 
raised letters for the blind. That man had a congrega- 
tion of two millions of people, and he had never seen one 
of them. It is said that his mother mourned over him 
when she learned that he was hopelessly blind, saying, "O 
my poor child, who will take care of you when I am gone ? " 
but God has taken care of her blind child, and made him 
the means of a great deal of sight to the world. 

Now I want to take up some of the different classes of 
people in this city who are blind. 

In the first place, there are some of our leading men 
who are money-blind. The god of this world has been 
holding up dollars and cents before their eyes so long 
that they have set their hearts upon them, and now they 
can scarcely see any thing else. 

They are spending all their time and strength in order 
to get rich. God has given them the desire of their souls, 



372 Dwight L. Moody: 

and just see how lean and miserable they are: how pooi 
and blind, in spite of all their wealth ! 

Another class of people, a large class in these days, are 
blinded by politics. There will be a great many sad hearts 
over this election inside of a week. Those men who seek 
the honor that cometh from men are making a wreck of 
their lives and going down to ruin, when if they were only 
seeking the honor that comes from above, the honor which 
comes from God, their names might be written in the 
book of life. 

Then there are a great many whose eyes have been 
blinded with pleasure. In the inquiry meeting the other 
night there was a woman who said to me, " Mr. Moody, 
there is a ball coming off in a few days. I don't want to 
become a Christian until that is over " 

Another lady said to me, " I should not like to become 
a Christian, because I should have to give up all pleasure." 

" What pleasure ? " I asked. 

" Theaters, novels, and cards," she replied. 

" What ! a sensible woman like you weighing such trifles 
as these against the salvation of your soul ! " 

" Well," said the woman, " I haven't any thing else 
to do." 

" Nothing else to do, when there are souls waiting for 
you to lead them to Christ ? " 

O how blind such a soul must be ! 

Some people are Winded by fashion. They always want 
to see the latest patterns in dresses, bonnets, and cloaks. 
One woman said to me, " I always think of a new dress, 
or something, whenever I kneel down to pray." You laugh, 
hut hovy many of you are guilty of just such sin and folly? 



His Sermons. 373 

If you fashionable people would get along with fewer 
dresses, and spend some of your pocket money relieving 
the poor, you would show a great deal more wisdom than 
in spending you lives like so many butte'rflies. 

Another class of the blinded are those who call them- 
selves fast men. Here is a young man with a thousand 
dollars salary, but he spends three thousand dollars a year ; 
and by and by his employers begin to suspect him. He 
takes a dollar because he wants to go to the theater some 
night; then he wants to go two nights, so he takes two 
dollars. And this goes on until he is discovered, his good 
name gone forever, and he turned out upon the world a 
wretched and ruined man. 

There are a great many young men in this city who are 
spending their time and money at the gambling table, and 
how long do you think it will be before those poor blinded 
souls will be lost ? 

There is another class of people who are wretchedly 
blind. I saw one of these young men as I was coming 
down to the Tabernacle to-night. Now listen to what 
Solomon says about him : " At the window of my house I 
looked through my casement, and beheld among the sim- 
ple ones ... a young man void of understanding. . . . 
and, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a 
harlot, and subtle of heart. . . . She caught him, and 
kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, . . . 
I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, . . . 
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinna- 
mon. Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning" ■ 
let us solace ourselves with loves. . . . He goeth after he 
straightwav, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a foo 



374 Dwight L. Moody: 

co the correction of the stocks. . . . For she hath cast down 
many wounded : yea, many strong men have been slain by 
Her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the 
chambers of death." 

And I don't know a much shorter way to hell than that. 

Some of you who have come up from the country, from 
pious homes, may find yourselves disgraced, corrupted, and 
destroyed just because you suffer the god of this world to 
blind your hearts to the damning sin of licentiousness. 

May the Lord open your eyes to-night to see your dan- 
ger and your sin ! Then when you get your eyes opened 
a little, and have taken a good look at your miserable self, 
look at once to Christ, and by looking at him you will see 
his beauty, learn to love him, and come to be like him. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR. 

I WAS once preaching about Christ as our Saviour, and 
after I had got through I was telling the good Scotch- 
man at whose house I lodged how badly I felt over the 
discourse. It seemed to me that I had made a failure 
of it. 

" Ha, mon," replied he, " ye dinna think ye can tell 
a' aboot Christ in ane hour, d'ye?" 

We must meet Christ first at Calvary; there, where he 
died, is where we get our life. When we come to know 
him as our Saviour, then we are ready to go on and 
know him in his other offices. 

There was a man I once knew who could never hear a 
certain name mentioned without the tears coming into 



His Sermons. 375 

his eyes, and I asked him what it meant. " Well," said 
he, " that man saved me." And then he went on to tell 
me how he had got into trouble, and had taken some 
money from his employer hoping to replace it, but being 
unable to do so, the whole thing was in danger of com- 
ing out, and he would have been ruined ; but he went to 
this friend and opened his heart to him, and the friend 
lent him the money, which saved him. " And now," said 
he, " I would give my life for that man, if need be." 

What gratitude ought we to feel toward Christ, who 
has saved us, redeemed us, and brought us out from 
under the curse of the law, not with money, but with his 
own precious blood! 



CHRIST THE KEEPER. 

A FRIEND of mine was once asked what "persuasion" 
he belonged to. He replied, " I am of the same persua- 
sion as St. Paul." 

"What persuasion is that?" 

" Why," he said, " I am persuaded he is able to keep 
that which I have committed unto him against that day." 

My friends, that was a very good persuasion — the very 
best I know of. 

In Psalm cxxi it says: "He that keepeth thee will 
not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall nei- 
ther slumber nor sleep." Don't let the devil deceive 
you, and make you feel discouraged because you cannot 
keep yourselves from sin ; that isn't your business ; that 
is Christ's business. 

Now I seem to hear some one saying, "I don't under- 
25 



376 Dwight L. Moody: 

stand this committing myself to Christ as my keeper.*' 
Well, 1*11 give you an illustration. Suppose you had a 
hundred thousand dollars in your pocket, and you knew 
that the city was full of thieves, what would you do? I 
suppose you would find out the best and safest bank in 
Chicago, and give the money to it to keep for you. Just 
that thing is what you want to do with your soul. You 
are worth more than a hundred thousand dollars, and 
the devil is watching to steal you, but Christ offers to 
take care of you. " The Lord is thy keeper." " The Lord 
shall preserve thee from all evil." 

In the Zoological Gardens in Manchester there was a 
lion and a little dog which lived in the same cage. 

It appears that one day a rough man about the 
grounds got very angry with his dog because it 
wouldn't fight another dog on a wager; and, after whip- 
ping him most cruelly, he thrust him into the lion's 
cage, expecting to see him torn to pieces in an instant ; 
but the little dog ran to the lion for protection, and the 
great beast took a liking to him, and they came to be 
fast friends. After awhile the man got over his mad fit, 
and wanted his dog back again. So he went to the cage 
and called, but the dog wouldn't come. Then he thrust 
his hand into the cage to try to get him, but the lion 
growled and lifted his paw, and the man was glad to 
take his hand out right quick. Then he went to the 
keeper of the lion, and asked him to get his dog out for 
him. "How did the dog get into the lion's cage?" 
asked the keeper, and the man was obliged to confess 
fhat he had put him in himself. "Then he shall stay 
there," said the keeper. And so the man lost his dog 



His Sermons. 377 

altogether, for the little fellow had found a protector 
who was stronger than his old master. 

Young convert, the Lion of the tribe of Judah is more 
than a match for your old master, the devil. Put your- 
self under his protection, and you will be eternally safe. 



CHRIST THE LIGHT. 

I WANT to speak a little while on Christ as the Light. 
" If any man follow me," says Christ, " he shall not walk 
in darkness, but shall have the light of life." It is only 
when the earth turns to the sun that it is daylight. So 
with the soul; its day is in the light of the Sun of 
Righteousness. When it is dark and stormy in the 
valley, if you climb the mountain perhaps you will get 
above the cloud : so faith will lift you into the eternal 
sunshine. 

And if Christ is our light we also must shine for the 
world. A friend of mine said he once saw a blind man 
going along one dark night carrying a lantern in his 
hand. He was very much surprised at it, and asked the 
man what use the lantern could possibly be to him. 

" O," said the blind man, " I carry the lantern to keep 
people from stumbling over me." Christian, that is a 
good lesson for you. 

Some young converts were once set upon by an infidel 
who laughed at their religion, and said it was all moon- 
shine. " Thank you for that compliment," said one of 
them; "that is just what it is. We only shine by the 
light of the Sun." " 



37S Dwight L. Moody: 



CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 

A FRIEND of mine, who has traveled in the East, told 
me of one day meeting a shepherd, who had a large 
flock of sheep in a region where it was the custom to 
have a name for every sheep. 

" Do you know the names of every one of your flock?" 
asked my friend. 

" O yes." 

" Well, call some of them, and let me see if they know 
their own names." 

So the shepherd called one after another, and they 
came up and stood by his side. 

" How in the world can you tell these sheep apart ? 
They look all alike to me." 

" Don't you see that that sheep has lost a little bit 
of wool ? That one is a little cross-eyed ; this one is a 
little bow-legged ; and that one over there turns his toes 
in?" And so he went on describing each sheep by his 
faults and imperfections. 

Ah, my friends, I am afraid that is the way the Good 
Shepherd knows some of us most easily. 

But let us trust to the care of this Shepherd. He will 

take care of his flock. We read in the Scriptures that a 

lion and a bear once came and took a lamb out of David's 

flock, and he rose up against them, plucked the lamb out 

of their paws, and slew both the lion and the bear. How 

much more shall Jesus, the Good Shepherd, rescue the 

lambs of his flock from the power of the world and the 

wicked one ! 
15 



His Sermons. 379 



SEEKING THE LOST SHEEP. 

I WAS once invited to preach to the prisoners at the 
Tombs in New York. They were not allowed to leave 
their cells, so I had to preach the best I could without 
seeing my congregation. My text was, " For the Son of 
man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." 

After I had got through, I thought I would go around 
and have a look at the men I had been preaching to ; 
so I went to the first cell, and found the men in it play- 
ing cards. 

" What is the matter with you ? " said I ; " how happen 
you to be here ? " 

" O, we are here because somebody swore falsely 
about us; we are not guilty of any thing, and just as 
quick as we can come to our trial we shall be able to es- 
tablish our innocence." 

Well, thought I to myself, these men are not lost. 

So I went to the next cell, and asked the men how 
they came to be in prison. 

" We got into bad company ; it was the other fellows 
who did the crime, but we were caught and held for it." 

The next man, I found, was not the man they were 
looking for at all ; he only very much resembled the man 
who did commit the crime, but he wasn't guilty of an> 
thing. The}' were there — so many of them — altogethei 
by mistake. And so I went on from one cell to another 
but nobody was ready to confess himself a sinner, no- 
body was lost. I never saw so many innocent men in 
jail in all my life. 



380 Dwight L. Moody: 

But after awhile I found a poor fellow with his face 
buried in his hands, and there were two little streams of 
tears running out between his fingers. 

" What is the matter? " said I. 

" O, sir, I am such a sinner ; I feel as if I was lost ! " 

" You are just the man I have been looking for,'* 
said I. 

" What ! you looking for me ? " 

"Yes. I have a message for you from the Lord. He 
has come to seek and to save the lost, and now you say 
that you are lost, so you are just the man my Lord wants 
to save." 

We knelt down and prayed together on the stone 
floor, he on one side of the iron grating, and I on the 
other ; and I left him with the promise that I would 
pray for him that night after I went home to my hotel, 
which would be about ten o'clock, and he promised to 
meet me at the throne of grace at that hour. 

I felt so much interested in his case that, after praying 
for him that night as I had promised, I went down to see 
him next day; and when I got there I found his face 
shining with joy. 

" I declare," said he, " I think I am the happiest man 
in New York." 

He was lost, and was willing to confess it, and so the 
Lord had sought him out and saved him. 

What a sweet text this is. It is a short text, but it i9 
long enough to save any sinner who will believe it. 

Some people tell me that they are seeking for Christ 
and cannot find him. That must be a mistake. Let 
them reverse their statement ; Christ is seeking for them, 



His Sermons. 381 

but, somehow or other, they manage to keep out of his 
way. 

When Adam had sinned, the very first thing he ought 
to have done was to seek God, and pray to be forgiven ; 
but instead of that he hid himself among the trees of 
the garden, and God was obliged to go and seek for him. 

Take that parable of the man who had a hundred 
sheep, and one of them went astray. 

In that country they say the shepherd used to stand at 
the door of the fold, and hold a rod out for the sheep 
to pass under, one at a time. By that means he counted 
them correctly. 

Well, this man stands there to count his sheep as they 
come in, but he finds that one of them is missing. There 
are only ninety-nine ; then he counts them all over again 
to be sure, and when he finds that there certainly is one 
lost, he goes out into the mountain to seek after it. 

Mind, the sheep isn't seeking the shepherd, but the 
shepherd is seeking the sheep. 

The same lesson is taught in the parable of the woman 
who had the ten pieces of silver, and lost one. 

She had sold some butter, or something else, that day,, 
and put the money in her pocket, instead of laying it 
away safely. When she gets ready to go to bed, she 
takes it all cut to count it. 

" Why, I certainly had ten pieces," she says, " and here 
are only nine." So she lights a candle, and sweeps the 
house, and searches for it until she finds the lost piece. 

Now, it is not the lost piece of money that is trying to 
get back to the woman, but the woman who is trying to 
get back the lost piece of money. 



382 Dwight L. Moody: 

So it is not sinners who are seeking Christ, but Christ 
tvho is seeking sinners. 

There are some people who say they expect to be 
Christians in God's own good time. A man was saying 
to me the other day that the Gospel didn't hit him any 
where, and he was waiting until it did. 

"What are you waiting for?" said I; "God has sent 
his prophets, and the world has killed them ; God has 
sent his Son, and they have crucified him ; he has sent 
his Holy Spirit, and they reject him ; now, what more is 
there that even God can do toward saving sinners than 
he has already done ? " 

Christ is all the time seeking the lost ; he seeks them 
by means of all the gospel sermons that are preached ; 
by all the tracts that are distributed ; by all the Bibles 
that are printed ; by all your churches and Sunday- 
schools ; by the Tabernacle here in Chicago, and by 
every similar structure that good men have built for the 
use of these gospel meetings every-where. 

This Tabernacle in which we are assembled to-night 
oughl to be, like Noah's ark, a warning to the people of 
this city that God is seeking them, and that it is time 
for them to begin to seek God. 

What pains people take to find their money if they 
lose it. 

How those poor invalids go on long journeys to find 
some doctor who is said to have great skill, in the hope 
that perhaps they may regain their lost health. 

Suppose it is reputation that is lost, how the man 
struggles to regain it ; suppose it were sight that was 
lost, would it not be worthy of all the pains you could 



His Sermons. 383 

possibly take to get back your sight again ? But what is 
money, or reputation, or sight, or even life itself, when 
compared with loss of the immortal soul ? 

Christ is all the time seeking us and sending out invi- 
tations to us. He says, " Come unto me all ye that 
labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." 

Then, again, he says, " Him that cometh to me I will 
in no wise cast out." 

If you are an anxious sinner, Christ is more anxious 
to save you than you are to be saved. 

If you are seeking Christ, and Christ is seeking you, it 
will not take long for the anxious sinner and the anxious 
Saviour to meet. 

There is another way in which the Son of God seeks 
for your souls, and that is through the Holy Spirit which 
he sent into this world. Undoubtedly many of you that 
have been here have said, " Well, there is a strange at- 
mosphere here." I was talking to a man in the inquiry 
room, and he said that he couldn't help noticing the 
difference between the atmosphere of these meetings and 
of the drinking saloons which he had frequented. 

What is the difference? It is the Spirit of God. It 
is that very Spirit that is down here seeking to win you 
to that blessed Saviour. He was sent into this world for 
that purpose. 

Not only does the Lord seek us himself, but he sends 
other people to seek us. How many Christian parents 
are joining with the Lord in trying to save their lost 
sons and daughters? 

In one of our Chicago meetings a few years ago a 
young man got up and asked to speak, and with tears 



384 Dwight L. Moody: 

trickling down his cheeks told the young men to come 
to Christ, and remiuded them that they would not always 
have fathers and mothers to pray for them. 

He said, " I once had a praying father and mother; I 
was their only son ; but at last my father died, and my 
mother grew more anxious than ever about me. Some 
nights I would wake up and hear her crying in her 
chamber, ' O, God, save my boy! O, God, convert my 
son ! ' and sometimes I would go into my mother's room 
in the day time unexpectedly and find her praying for 
me. She would put her arms about my neck and say, 
If you were only a Christian I should be so happy ; ' and 
I would push her away and tell her that after I had seen 
more of the world I would settle down and be a Chris- 
tian. At last her prayers made my home so hot for me 
that I fled away without telling her where I was going. 
I was gone a long time before I heard from home, and 
when I did hear I heard she was sick, and I knew that 
it was my conduct that was killing her. I thought I 
would go home and ask her forgiveness, but then I 
thought if I did I would have to be a Christian. I could 
not live in the house without yielding to her prayers, 
and so my stubborn heart refused. The next time I 
heard that she was worse, and I thought I should never 
forgive myself, and that I should be my mother's mur- 
derer if I did not go nome. So I started for home in a 
coach — there was ho railroad — and reached my native 
village about dark, and the moon had just commenced 
to shine. In passing the grave-yard I got over the fence 
to see if there were a new-made grave there; and I don't 
know why, but as I drew near the spot my heart began 



iHis Sermons. 385 

to beat quick, and when I got there I saw by the light 
of the moon a new-made grave. Then for the first time 
in my life I thought, ' Who is going to pray for my 
lost soul, now father and mother are dead ? They are 
the only two who cared for my soul ; their prayers are 
over ; who is going to pray for me now?' By my moth- 
er's grave I cried to my mother's God all night, and 
when the morning came God had forgiven my sins." 
He said if he could call back that mother and ask her 
forgiveness he would give all he had in the world. 

Perhaps I am speaking to some one who has wandered 
away from a mother's love, or trampled a sainted moth- 
er's prayers under his feet. O, come back, come home ! 
God sent his Son after you ; he stooped from heaven 
and clear down to the manger, and even to the cross of 
Calvary : he wrestled with the powers of darkness that 
he might restore your soul and mine. 

O, may the Spirit of God fall upon this assembly to- 
night, and may the lost be found and the wanderers come 
home ! 

CHRIST THE RESTORER. 
THE third verse of the twenty-third psalm begins, " He 
restoreth my soul." I love to think of Christ as a Re- 
storer. There are a good many of you who have strayed 
away from the fold, who want to come back and be re- 
stored to your first love ; and this is just what the Lord 
wants to do for you. If you are full of the joy of the 
Lord you will be full of power. Just pray to-day that 
the Lord will now restore your soul ; pray, as David did, 
" Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold 



386 Dwight L. Moody: 

me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors 
thy way ; and sinners shall be converted unto thee." 
David got a? far away from the Lord as any sinner in 
Chicago, but the Lcrd restored him. 

It seems to me that every day I find Christians more 
troubled about their coldness and distance from God. 
Now, at the close of the services, there are more than 
there were at the beginning. This psalm is for them ; 
let them remember that the Lord is able and willing to 
be a restorer unto them. 

At the young converts' meeting last night, some of 
them were speaking of their trials and battles. The Lord 
had given them new hearts, but the flesh was rising up 
to trouble them. Now Paul tells us what is to be done 
in such cases : " Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be 
dead indeed unto sin." It does not say the old Adam- 
nature is actually dead. You don't " reckon " the people 
in Graceland dead ; they are dead, and there is no reckon- 
ing about it. The thing to do is to treat the old nature 
as if it were dead ; keep it down ; keep it under ; and 
God will give the new nature power to overcome and 
destroy it. 

Another class of persons to whom I want to speak a 

word are those who have once professed to be followers 

of the Lord Jesus Christ, and have left him and gone 

back to the world. I want to ask the backslider, " Are 

you happy ? If you are, you are the first backslider I 

ever heard of who was happy. I never knew a man or 

woman who ever found Christ and left him who had any 

peace of mind. The world never can fill the void that 

has been made by the loss of Christ. There is no altai 
15* 



His Sermons. 387 

in your home now. Perhaps there was a time when you 
used to pray ; and perhaps now your children ask you, 
'What has God done that you don't pray to him any 
more ? " Why is it that you have left him ? It may be 
that you have trouble at home, that your husband per- 
secutes you, or that your children make light of your 
prayer, but is that any reason why the altar should come 
down? Ought not this to drive you nearer to Christ, 
and make you more Christlike ? What has Christ done 
to you that you should have left him ? 

What Christ wants is to have you come back to-day. 
I wish I could say something that would bring back 
every backslider, and have all of them flocking into the 
fold. 

I remember of hearing about a young man who went 
to California and became very reckless and wicked, and 
his father, hearing of his life of dissipation and sin, used 
to write letters to him ; but the boy didn't care much 
for his father's letters. A neighbor was going out there, 
and the father said, " I want you to find out my boy, 
and tell him that his father loves him as much as ever, 
and if he will only come home I will forgive him freely ; 
that my heart is as true to him as ever." When the 
neighbor got to California he hunted for the boy, and 
one night he found him in a gambling den. As soon as 
he could get him away from the rest of the gang he told 
him about the message his father had sent. 

The great tears trickled down the boy's face, and he 
said, ''Did my father say he loves me still?" 

So I say to backsliders, God loves you still. 

The most tender and loving words that were ever 



388 Dwight L. Moody: 

uttered by the Lord were said to backsliding Israel. He 
gave them warning, that they might repent of their sins 
and be saved that seventy years of captivity ; but they 
would not listen to the word, and at lastjudgment came. 
God will win you back in love if lie can, but if that will 
not do, the rod will come. So he saved Lot out of 
Sodom, but he had to burn Sodom in order to do it. 

I have yet to find the man or woman who ever left the 
Lord that could give a good reason for it. They have 
talked about the unfaithful ones in the Church, but the 
faults of others should not make them leave the Lord. 

You may want to know how you can get out of your 
present position. There is one peculiar way out of the 
backslider's ditch, and that is the same way you went 
into it. The Lor.d did not leave you ; you left him — 
turned your back on him. 

If you treat Christ as a real personal friend, you will 
never go away from him. If I were going to leave 
Boston I would shake hands with my friends, and say, 
" Good-bye." But did you ever hear of a backslider 
going into his closet, and saying, " Lord, I have served 
you so long, now I am tired of your service, and am 
going back into the world ; so good-bye ? " Who ever 
heard of any one leaving Christ in that way ? You left 
him without saying good-bye; but he will have mercy on 
you if you come back to him. May God bring home the 
wanderers ! May they hear the voice of the Shepherd 
to-day, in the dark mountains, calling them home ! 

If there was a child lost in Boston, and you could find 
it to-night, how you would hunt for it ! You would be 
willing to sit up all night to find that child. Supposing 



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His Sermons. 389 

it was known that Charlie Ross was hid somewhere in 
this city, how many in this audience would volunteer to 
go out and ransack tht whole city to find him ! How 
this whole nation has been roused over the loss of that 
little boy ! But, my friends, only think of the lost souls 
that are walking up and down the streets of Boston ! 
Think of them in these billiard halls and drinking sa- 
loons ; young men that are noble, that might make jewels 
in the Saviour's crown which should sparkle through eter- 
nity : and they are perishing for the want of Christ ; 
they are lost and don't know it ; they are blindfolded ; 
and Satan is dragging them down to hell ! 

The fifth verse closes with these words, " My cup 
runneth over." 

A Christian is not of much use until he is full, and 
running over, with religion. God's people try to do his 
work on too small capital, and that accounts for the 
many failures we see. What you want is to be so full 
of Christ that you will have something over to use in 
helping your neighbors. Let the cup be so full that it 
will run over. 

The sixth verse reads, " Surely goodness and mercy 
shall follow me all the days of my life." 

An Englishman once said to me, " The Lord has no 

poor children. If you see a man always walking you 

think he is poor ; if he sometimes takes a Hansom cab 

you think he is a little better off; if he has his own 

turnout you call him rich ; if he has a footman up 

behind he must have a large fortune ; and if he has 

two footmen you say he must have a large inheritance 

to support such expense. Now the children of God 
26 



390 Dwight L. Moody: 

have two footmen — Goodness and Mercy — and the psalm 
says they shall follow me all the days of my life. Sure- 
ly the child of God must have a great inheritance to be 
able to have such a following." 

I bring you a loving message to-day. He will forgive 
you if you will return to him, even as if you never had 
wandered. 

I went to a physician the other day to tell him that a 
niece of mine, whom he had cured, as we supposed, had 
suffered a relapse. "Well," says the doctor, "just increase 
the lemedy." That is just what the relapsed believer 
must do — get more of Christ. 

Rev. Mr. Brown, an evangelist from Wisconsin, in one of the 
Chicago meetings related the following incident : — 

" I have a friend who used to live in Syria, and he 
became very well acquainted with the shepherds of that 
country. One day as he was riding among the mount- 
ains he came to a spring of water, and stopped to 
rest awhile. Presently, down one of the steep mountain 
paths a shepherd came, leading his flock of sheep. Not 
long after another shepherd with another flock came 
down to the water by another path, and after awhile a 
third. The three flocks mingled together, so that he 
began to wonder how each shepherd was ever going to 
find his own sheep again. 

" At last one of them rose up and called out, ' Men-ah ! ' 
which in Arabic means ' follow; ' and his sheep came out 
from the great flock, and followed him back into the 
mountains. He did not even stop to count them. Then 
shepherd No. 2 got up and called out to his sheep, 



His Sermons. 391 

Men-ah ! ' and those of his flock leit the others and fol- 
lowed him away. 

" My friend could speak Arabic very well ; so one day 
he said to a shepherd, ' I think I could make your sheep 
follow me.' 

" ' I think not,' said the shepherd. 

" ' Give me your turban, and your cloak, and your 
crook,' said my friend, i and we'll see.' 

" So he put on the shepherd's turban and his cloak, 
and took the crook in his hand, and stood up where the 
sheep could see him, and called out, ' Men-ah ! men-ah ! ' 
but not a sheep would take any notice of him. 

" ' They know not the voice of strangers.' 

" My friend asked the shepherd if the sheep never fol- 
lowed any body but him. 

" ' O yes ; sometimes a sheep gets sick, and then it 
will follow a stranger.' 

" Just so with us Christians ; we get sick and backslid- 
den, and then we follow the devil." 



PLENTY AND- SAFETY WITH CHRIST. 

It is an old saying, " The sheep that keeps nearest the 
shepherd gets the most salt." 

One summer I went up on to the mountain with my 
brother, who was going to salt his sheep ; and I noticed 
one sheep which came right up to him, and stood by 
him, and got all the salt it wanted ; then it put its nose 
into his pocket and got an apple ; but all the other 
sheep seemed a little afraid of him. I asked him how 
it was, and he said, " That sheep has been brought up 



39 2 Dwight L. Moody: 

a cosset, and isn't a bit afraid of me." So it is with 
those Christians who keep close to Christ ; they are like 
the sheep that gets the most salt ; but a good many 
Christians seem a little afraid of the Shepherd ; and 
because they are afraid and keep away from him they 
never get much salt. 

Christ says, in the tenth chapter of John, " I am the 
door of the sheep." If you go into Farwell Hall you 
must go in through the door; if you go into the kingdom 
of God you must go in through Jesus Christ. In another 
verse he says of his sheep, " I give unto them eternal life ; 
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck 
them out of my hand." This word " man " is in italics, 
and if we leave it out, the text will be : " neither shall 
any " — neither men nor devils — " pluck them out of my 
hand." 

" I " will do this ; " I " will do that. Twenty-eight 
times in this chapter does Christ use that pronoun to 
declare what he is, and what he will do for those who 
believe on him. Surely that is enough to show his claim 
as a Divine person and his Divine mission among men. 



FEEDING THE MULTITUDE— THE BREAD OF LIFE. 
THE lesson for to-day is the sixth chapter of John. We 
might write over this chapter, " Bread ; bread for the 
hungry; bread from heaven.'' All the evangelists give 
an account of this miracle of Christ feeding the multi- 
tude with those five loaves and a few small fishes ; but 
John brings out the idea more fully than the others, that 
Christ is himself the bread of life from heaven. 



His Sermons. 393 

Here in the fifth and sixth verses Christ is trying 
Philip's faith by asking him, " Whence shall we buy 
bread, that these may eat ? " Philip, answering, says, 
"Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for 
them, that every one of them may take a little." I 
suppose he mentioned that sum because that was the 
extent of the money in their little treasury — only about 
thirty dollars. But Christ took the " five barley loaves, 
and two small fishes," which a lad had brought for his 
lunch, and when he had given thanks he distributed 
to the disciples, and the disciples fed the multitude 
with them. Then, when all had eaten enough, and 
twelve baskets full of the fragments had been taken up, 
Christ tries to get their minds off from the bread that 
perisheth, and to set them to thinking of the bread 
of life. 

In one part of this chapter the people are trying to 
make him king, in another they are trying to kill him. 
They were ready enough to follow him as long as he fed 
them, but when he began to spiritualize the miracle, and 
ask them to believe on him as the Son of God and Sav- 
iour of the world, a great many went back, and fol- 
lowed him no more. It was just as it used to be when 
I had a Sunday-school over here on the north side. 
Just advertise a picnic or a festival, where there was 
going to be something to eat, and the school would be 
out in full force. We would find people then who had 
hardly been inside the church for a whole year. 

Now Christ accuses these people of just this very 
thing, " Ye seek me, because ye did eat of the loaves; " 
and that is just the way with a great many people, who 



394 Dwight L. Moody : 

are standing round on the edges of the Church, and say- 
ing to themselves, " Can't we make something out of this 
thing ? " 

They said unto him, " What shall we do, that we might 
work the works of God ? " Perhaps some of them had 
big families, and wanted to know how to make a small 
amount of provisions go a good ways. Jesus answered, 
"This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom 
he hath sent." There it is again, that little word " be- 
lieve." You can't go far in this Gospel of John without 
running on to that word " believe." 

The people replied, " Moses gave our fathers manna 
to eat in the desert." 

" No," says Christ, " Moses didn't do any such thing; 
it was my Father who gave you that bread, and now he 
gives you his Son, who is the true bread of life. Verily 
I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting 
life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and 
are dead. I am the living bread which came down from 
heaven : if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for- 
ever : and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I 
will give for the life of the world." 

I can see Jesus as he takes the bread and blesses it, and 
gives it to the disciples to give to the multitude. Here 
is Andrew with a piece of the loaf in his hand, beginning 
to distribute it among the crowd. I seem to see him 
breaking off a small piece for the first man, for fear the 
bread wont hold out, but when he sees that the loaf isn't 
any smaller for what he has broken off he goes to the 
next man and gives him a larger piece ; still there is 
no loss of bread. Then he gives the third a good gener- 



His Sermons. 395 

ous portion, and when he finds that the bread doesn't 
grow any smaller he goes on breaking off great pieces, 
and giving to every one as much as he likes. 

A man in the inquiry room last night said, " Do you 
believe that is literal ? " 

"Yes," I said; "it is literal in this sense: our minds 
are to feed upon the real, personal Christ, and not upon 
creeds and dogmas, and dry notions of theology." Pretty 
dry feeding, that; but I have known people who were 
feeding themselves upon something drier yet. They 
were trying to live off the failings of their neighbors, I 
tell you, my friends, you'll get terribly lean if you try to 
live on such dry fodder as that. 

Then there is another thought. Plenty of people 
never learn to feed themselves. Parents take great care 
to teach their little children to do this. You may hear 
the mother saying, " Do just look at the baby, he is be- 
ginning to feed himself with a spoon." But how many 
people there are in the Church who never learn to feed 
themselves. They go around to get one minister after 
another to feed them, instead of coming to Christ and 
taking the bread of life for themselves. 

I have heard of artificial bees with springs in them, 
so that they moved about, and you could hardly tell 
them from the real live bees when they were put down 
among them. The maker puzzled a good many people 
with them, till at last somebody found out how to ex- 
pose the trick. He just put down a little honey among 
them, and all the live bees went for it right away. So it 
is in the Church, those who have the true life in them 
have good sharp appetites for the bread of life. 



396 Dwight L. Moody: 

You remember that when the children of Israel came 
L>ut of Egypt some of them got tired of manna, and were 
almost ready to go back into captivity again for the sake 
of getting some of the Egyptian onions, leeks, and gar- 
lic. Now that is just the way with backsliders nowa- 
days. They leave the Church, and the prayer-meeting, 
and the family altar, and try to satisfy themselves with 
theaters and operas, and other worldly amusements ; 
and they are famished half to death because they don't 
feed on this heavenly loaf. You can always tell a minis- 
ter who feeds his people with the bread of life by the 
crowd of hungry souls that always flock to hear him. 

One more verse : " Whoso eateth my flesh, and drink- 
eth my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise him up at 
the last day." I remember once going to a grave-yard 
in England, and over the gate-way were these words . 
" THEY SHALL RISE AGAIN." Thanks be to God ! this 
Christ, who is the bread of life to us in this world, is our 
pledge of resurrection from the dead and our eternal life 
in the world to come. 



THE WATER OF LIFE. 

Yesterday our subject was "The Bread of Life," to-day 
it is " The Water of Life." I will begin at the thirty- 
seventh verse of this seventh chapter of John : " In the 
last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and 
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, 
and drink." 

It seems that Jesus went up to this feast alone, and 
after he had finished his teachings he went away to the 



His Sermons. 397 

* 
Mount of Olives. It is said that he couldn't walk in 

Judea any more, because the Scribes and Pharisees were 

looking for a chance to kill him. 

He had committed the sin, in their eyes, of healing a 
sick man on the Sabbath day, and sending him away 
with his bed on his back. This shocked their piety dread- 
fully. You see, my friends, that people may be very re- 
ligious, and at the same time their hearts may be full of 
hatred and murder. These Scribes and Pharisees were 
full of religion of their own particular sort, and yet they 
were all the while trying to kill the Son of God. 

There was another thing that seemed to have lain 
heavy upon the heart of Jesus, and that was the fact that 
his own brethren didn't believe on him. 

. Then, again, some people had accused him of being 
possessed of the devil, and for all these reasons Jesus 
was sorrowful, and wanted to be alone ; so he sent his 
disciples on before him to the feast. 

The next day, after stopping over night at the house 
of his friend Lazarus, he came into the city, which was 
greatly excited concerning him. People were talking 
about him in little groups on the street corners, just as 
they are now on the street corners of Chicago talking 
about the election. Some people believed on him and 
others denounced him, so that the whole city was di- 
vided into two parties on his account. 

It was on the last great day of the feast that Jesus 
spoke the words I have read — " If any man thirst, let 
him come unto me, and drink." 

I have been very much interested this morning in run- 
ning through my Bible to find this expression so many 



398 Dwight L. Moody: 

times repeated : " If any man," etc. " If any man hear 
my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and 
will si p with him. If any of you lack wisdom, let him 
ask o* God . . . and it shall be given him." That is a 
good text for your business men who are greatly embar- 
rassed and don't know how to make both ends meet. 
God is rich, and what you want to do is to commit your 
business and all your affairs to him, and he will show 
you a way out of your business troubles. 

" If any man serve me, let him follow me." A great 
many people profess to serve Christ, but do not follow 
either his precepts or example. They are selfish, worldly, 
extravagant ; let them confess their sins, and come back 
to Christ. " If any man be a worshiper of God, him he 
heareth." 

A lady said to me in the inquiry room the other night : 
" The heavens seem to be brass over my head." The 
trouble was, she hadn't been a worshiper of God. " If 
any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." 
The reason why men don't know God's will is because 
they don't do it. " If any man will come after me, let 
him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." 
That is the trouble : they don't like to deny them- 
selves. 

Now, these passages of Scripture seem to settle the 
question that God is not partial. Just see how broad 
all these invitations are ; they are universal, and they 
follow us every-where, through all the ages, just as the 
stream that poured out of the rock in the wilderness 
followed all the wanderings of the children of Israel. 
What would you say of an able-bodied man who was 



His Sermons. 399 

dying of thirst right down by the shore of Lake Michi- 
gan ? This water of life is just as plentiful and free. 

Some people complain bitterly about being so hungry 
and thirsty — so dry and destitute of life and feeling — and 
you would almost believe, by the way they pity them- 
selves, that the fault was in the Lord, and that there was 
some scarcity in the " bread " and " water of life ; " but 
you will always find that when people really hunger and 
thirst after righteousness it isn't a great while before 
they are filled. 

•There are two wells on the old farm at Northfield 
which I heard my brother say never ran dry. One sum- 
mer morning I got up very early and went out, and 
after awhile I felt thirsty, and I went to one of the 
pumps to get some water; but there didn't seem to be 
any water in the well. Then I tried the other one, and 
that was as dry as the first. I pumped, and worked, 
and waited all in vain ; there wasn't a drop of water 
to be had. 

Pretty soon one of my brothers came out, and I said 
to him : — 

" I thought you told me that these wells never ran dry." 

-So I did." 

" Well, here I have been trying for ever so long to get 
a drink of water, and I can't get a drop." 

" O," said he, laughing, " I know what the matter is 
there is plenty of water in the well ; the trouble is in the 
pump." 

So he went and got a pailful of water and poured it 
into the old pump, and after that there was plenty of 
water in the well. 



400 Dwight L. Moody: 

Now that is just the way with some of you : there is 
plenty of water in the well, but the pump is dry. 

When Israel was in the wilderness God rained down 
bread from heaven upon them. Just so he rains down 
the bread and the water of life in the reach of every soul 
in Farwell Hall to-day, and if any of you perish finally, 
don't rise up in the judgment and say you were never 
invited to come to the gospel feast, for you have been 
invited here to-day. 



HOW TO FIND THE THIRSTY ONES. 

The following remarks by the Rev. Dr. Gibson, which immediately 
followed the above, were afterward quoted by Mr. Moody, who said 
they were "the best thing he ever heard." After calling attention 
to the fact that every body is thirsty for something, though they 
don't always just know what it is, the doctor said : — 

"We feel very happy over the freedom of these invita- 
tions of the Gospel, yet once in awhile something comes 
up to discourage us a little. For instance, this text says, 
' If any man thirst.' It is needful, therefore, that the 
man should ' thirst ' before he can consider himself invited 
to take of the 'water of life.' Now I suppose every body 
is thirsty for something — they don't just know what it is 
— but when they come to understand themselves thor- 
oughly, they will find out they are thirsting for the living 
God. And, my friends, I have no doubt there is a great 
er number of people thirsting than we have any idea of; 
they don't give any outward sign of it, but they would be 
very glad to get a draught of the ' water of life.' I was 
talking with a woman the other day about spiritual 
things, and she saic to me, ' I have a sister who has been 



His Sermons. 401 

a member of the Church for ten years, and she never has 
spoken a word to me about my soul. She knows I am 
not saved, and if she has got something that she thinks I 
ought to have, why don't she come to me and tell me 
about it ? ' So you see that sister's silence all those ten 
years, during which she had been a member of the 
Church, was a great stumbling-block in the other's way. 

"Now perhaps some of you are thinking what a fine 
thing it would be if you could find out those people who 
are thirsting for the ' water of life.' Well, that isn't a 
very hard thing to do. Suppose you are in a railway 
car, and the boy comes along with the water-can, you 
can tell all the thirsty ones right away, — as quick as the 
water comes within their reach they stretch out their 
hands to take it. And so, if you want to find out who 
there is about you that is thirsting for the ' water of 
life,' just carry it about and offer it to them, and you 
will be surprised to see how many people will reach out 
their hands and take it." 

Don't be afraid, my friends, to drink of the water of 
life freely. There is plenty of it ; you never can use it all. 
You might as well try to drink up the Mississippi River, 
or expect a company of children playing on the sea-shore 
to dip out all the water of the Atlantic. 



LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 
I WISH to-day to read the first of this Gospel by John. 

The difference between John's gospel and the others 
is this : Matthew writes of Jesus Christ as the Son of 
David ; Mark writes of him as a servant doing the will 



402 Dwight L. Mood\ : 

of his master ; Luke writes of him as the Son of man ; 
John speaks of him as the Son of God. He does not 
begin with Adam and give his genealogy, like Matthew ; 
nor speak of him in connection with the patriarchs and 
prophets, like Mark ; nor yet does he begin with Zacharias 
and Joseph, like Luke ; but he sweeps back over all time, 
away into the past eternity, and tells us that the Word 
was in the beginning with God. He brings him from the 
bosom of the Father, and takes him back to the glory 
which he had with the Father before the world was. 

In the ninth verse John tells us " he was the true light 
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." 
Now, if any man is in darkness, it isn't God's fault, any 
more than it would be for a man to build himself a 
house without windows. 

There is a picture, which I sometimes see hanging in 
people's parlors, of Christ standing and knocking at the 
door of a castle, holding a lantern in his hands. But 
what was the use of a lantern to him who is himself the 
light of the world ? You might as well hang a lantern 
to the sun. I find a great many people who complain 
that they are in the dark. The trouble with them is, 
they do not believe in Christ. They do not come to the 
light, and yet they are all the time trying to get the 
darkness out of their own hearts. If there were no 
windows in Farwell Hall, nor gaslight, of course the 
place would be full of darkness ; but nobody would think 
of carrying out the darkness in buckets. The proper 
thing to do would be to knock out a hole somewhere 
and let in the sunshine. Just so with these dark hearts ; 
the way to light them up is to let Christ in. 




INTERIOR OF CHICAGO TABERNACLE. 



His Sermons. 4^3 



THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. 

It has been said that others besides Christ have raised 
dead people to life. That is true, but they did it very 
differently from what he did it. 

In the seventeenth chapter of the first book of Kings 
we read of Elijah raising the son of the widow. But just 
hear what he says : he cried unto the Lord, " O Lord, 
my God, let this child's soul come into him again." 

Then, when Elisha did the same thing, we find that 
u he went in and shut the door, and prayed unto the 
Lord." 

Now just notice the difference between these accounts 
and the account of Christ raising Jairus's daughter. He 
didn't pray to any body, but he just took her by the 
hand and said to her, on his own account, " Maid, arise!" 
and she that was dead sat up, and began to speak. 

Take the case of his raising the widow's son. Death 
had got hold of his captive, and was dragging him off to 
the grave ; but Christ stopped him, and commanded him 
to come back. " Young man, I say unto thee, Arise ! " 

And the young man arose, and Christ delivered him 
again to his mother. 

He does not ask help or permission of any body, but 
of his own authority he calls back the dead to life. 

See him there at the grave of Lazarus. He weeps, it 
is true, but he does not pray. He just calls the dead 
man, and Lazarus comes forth, bound hand and foot 
with grave-clothes. Even the dead must obey when 
Christ commands. 
27 



404 Dwight L. Moody: 

Mr. Needham was telling me about a picture which he 
saw at the Crystal Palace at London of the raising of 
Lazarus. There he was, coming up out of the tomb, 
looking more like a skeleton than a man, his bones 
sticking out, and a general appearance of a body long 
dead. 

" I did not like the picture," says Mr. Needham ; " I 
don't believe he looked like that when Christ called him 
out of the grave. He was not raised as a convalescent, 
but in the full strength of his manhood, as any body can 
see who will read the Bible account, for he was strong 
enough to get up and come out of the grave in spite of 
the grave-clothes that bound him hand and foot." 

Now I want you to notice that there were three things 
his friends had to do. " Where have ye laid him ?" said 
Christ. He knew where he was well enough, but it was 
something which they might do to show him the grave 
of their brother. When they get to the grave he says : 
" Take ye away the stone." He might have done it 
himself. He could have thrown the stone a thousand 
miles away with a single word, but this was something 
which they could do for themselves. Then, after he 
has raised him, He tells them to " loose him, and let 
him go." It seems to me that is what a good many of 
these Christians want right here in Chicago. They have 
been resurrected ; they are out of their graves ; the new 
life is in them ; but they are still bound hand and foot 
with the grave-clothes of their old nature. They can't 
speak for Christ or work for Christ. Let us pray that 
these, whom the Lord has raised from the dead, may no 
longer go about in their grave-clothes. Get them off, 



His Sermons. 405 

and then you will be of some use to the Master who has 
raised you. 

And what encouragement there is for us, my friends, 
in this chapter ! If Christ could raise the dead brother 
of Martha and Mary, can he not raise the dead souls of 
our friends for whom we pray ? 

And now we come to the sad thought that in spite of 
this great miracle, which was wrought within two miles 
of Jerusalem, the chief priests and the Pharisees, when 
they heard of it, called a council to see how they might 
put him to death. O what enmity there is in the sin- 
ner's heart against the Lord Jesus Christ ! What a sad 
thought that this chapter leaves them plotting together 
to kill the Prince of Life! 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
THE PERSON OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

ONE of the most interesting and profitable portions of Mr. Moody's 
Theological System is that contained in his series of addresses on the 
Person ana Offices of the Holy Spirit 

The following are the best reports of Mr. Moody's lectures on the 
Holy Spirit, from the daily press of Chicago and Boston, carefully ar- 
ranged with a view to giving the substance of all his teachings on 
this subject, and that, too, in Mr. Moody's own style:— 

^R subject this afternoon is the Holy Spirit. I 
^££ haven't any doubt but that if I asked all the 
Christian people here to-day that really have no power 
in prayer and in their work to rise, there would be a 
great many who would stand up. I think there would 
be a great many who would say they have served God 
out of a sense of duty, and that it has all been forced 
work. Now, I think that mistake arises because people 
are satisfied with the work that Christ has done for them 
at Calvary, and they forget about the work of the Holy 
Ghost in them. I know that was my condition for years. 
I didn't really understand any thing about the Holy 
Spirit. I w T as almost as ignorant as were those men 
down there at Ephesus that Paul tells us about, who, 
when asked if they had received the Holy Ghost since 

[ 406 ] 



His Sermons. 407 

they believed, answered that they hadn't so much as 
heard that there was any Holy Ghost. 

For the first eight or nine years that I was a Christian 
I hardly knew there was such a person as the Holy 
Spirit. Whenever persons are baptized they are bap- 
tized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost, and yet there are very few sermons 
preached about him and about his work. 

I remember some years ago, when I first commenced 
to work for the Lord, I was speaking to a Sabbath- 
school in Brooklyn, and I was very much pleased with 
my effort. Quite a number had risen for prayer. When 
I went out an old man followed me, caught me by the 
hand, and said : — 

"Young man, when you speak again, honor the Holy 
Ghost." 

I started off and supposed it was somebody who had 
got some hobby that he was riding, and I didn't know 
what he meant, but I couldn't get it out of my mind. 
It followed me for days and for months. I think it was 
really months before I found out what he meant ; but I 
have found out since, and I think if we workers will keep 
the Holy Ghost in mind our work will not be barren ; 
but when we go in our own name, and in our own 
strength, and don't look to Him, our work will be un- 
successful. 

Now the way to honor the Holy Ghost is to bear in 
mind that he is equal with the Father and with the Son. 
Christ says, in Matthew xxviii, 19 : " Go ye therefore, and 
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Fa 
ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 



408 • Dwight L. Moody: 

Some people seem to think that the Holy Ghost 
never came to this world till he was sent by Christ 
after his ascension. You know Christ told the disciples 
to tarry in Jerusalem till they were endued with 
power from on high ; and I think it would be a good 
thing if we could have, in our theological seminaries, 
ten days set apart for the young ministers to wait till 
they get the power. There are many who start out to 
work for God who have great intellectual power ; but 
one touch of the power of God would be worth more 
than all this intellectual power. If these men would 
tarry more in Jerusalem, and get more of the Holy 
Ghost, they would accomplish more in one day than they 
sometimes do in years. How many times have these 
ministers here on the platform — how many times have 
we, when we have been preaching — felt as if we were beat- 
ing the air? No power — people going to sleep — and 
we couldn't arouse them. But when the power of God 
comes, and a man has got a message from the throne of 
God, then the Spirit carries him forward. 

The Holy Ghost was in the world before the day of 
Pentecost, for we read in the second chapter of Luke, 
twenty-sixth verse, these words ; " And it was revealed 
unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see 
death before he had seen the Lord's Christ." Then we 
read also in Second Peter, first chapter, twenty-first verse : 
" Foi the prophecy came not in old time by the will of 
man : but holy men of God spake as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost." You can't cut out one part of 
the Holy Scriptures and leave the rest : it is the same 
Spirit all through. 



His Sermons. 409 

Now people seem to forget who the Holy Ghost is. I 
want you to bear in mind that he is a person. I remem 
ber in a prayer-meeting some years ago that I offered a 
prayer, and prayed for the influence of the Holy Ghost ; 
and after I had got through a reverend old divine arose 
and said, " Why do you pray to the Holy Ghost as if he 
were an influence only? He is just as much a person 
as is the Father and the Son." 

Let us notice a few of the places where he is alluded 
to. Turn to the fourteenth chapter of John and the six- 
teenth verse, " And I will pray the Father, and he shall 
give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you 
forever." Now, if the Holy Ghost is merely an influence, 
why is he spoken of in this way? There is a class of 
people who think that there is no such thing as a per- 
sonal God or a personal devil. They are in the power 
of the devil, and don't know it ; but they will find out 
that he is a person some of these days, and that the 
Holy Ghost is a person also. 

Now let us read farther in the same chapter : in the 
seventeenth verse, '' Even the Spirit of truth ; whom the 
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither 
knoweth him : but ye know him ; for he dwelleth with 
you, and shall be in you." " He " and " him " are the 
words used, you see. Again, in the twenty-sixth verse 
of the same chapter, " But the Comforter, which is the 
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he 
shall teach you all things, and bring all things to youi 
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." And 
again, in the sixteenth chapter and eighth verse, " And 
when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and Qt 



4 x o Dwight L. Moody: 

righteousness, and of judgment." Notice how many 
times John repeats the " he." 

You can't reach a man that the Holy Ghost hasn't 
entered. The Holy Ghost must convince him of sin. 
A great many people come into this meeting and they 
say, " Here in this great crowd no one will know us." 
But One does see them ; the Holy Ghost is abroad, 
and he will find them ; and when the word of the Holy 
Ghost does reach them, it will cut like a two-edged 
sword. 

There was a man in Philadelphia who attended a 
meeting in the Tabernacle with his wife. On the way 
home he refused to speak to her, and the next day he 
refused to speak to her, and during a part of the next ; 
and when she asked what the matter was, he said, "What 
did you want to tell Mr. Moody about me for?" "I 
didn't," she said. " How did he know about me, then? 
He was just telling every body about me." 

You see something I had said struck right home to 
him. The Holy Ghost was abroad, and had moved me 
to speak the words that suited his case. The Holy 
Spirit had said to him, while I was speaking, " Thou art 
the man." That was Christ's promise: "When he is 
come, he will reprove the world of sin." Let us ask the 
Holy Spirit to show us our sins. 

Then, in the third chapter of John, we find that we 
get life through the Holy Spirit. That is what we want 
— life ; life in the Church. But if the life in the Church 
is not from him it will be artificial. What we are pray- 
ing for in Boston is the work of the Holy Ghost. It is 
the Holy Ghost with a man that first gives him life. 



His Sermons. 411 

You cannot educate a man in spiritual things until he 
is born of the Holy Ghost. The carnal mind cannot 
understand spiritual things. The trouble is, people who 
Ho not believe in God, and who are not spiritual, are 
trying to expound the word of God and to understand 
spiritual things. You must have a new birth before you 
can understand God's word. "That which is born of the 
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is 
spirit." When we are born of God we can receive the 
things of God, and not before. 

Now take this passage from 1 Pet. iii, 18, " For Christ 
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, 
that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the 
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." That is it : we must 
be quickened by the Spirit. We are not saved by cult- 
ure, we are saved by the mighty power of God quicken- 
ening us into new life. When he works he does not 
work for the moment, but for all eternity. In the Spirit 
only can we be saved, for God has condemned the flesh, 
and it cannot enter his presence. He has saved souls 
every-where ; so he will save souls here in Boston. 

Another work of the Spirit is to inspire love. See 
Rom. v, 5, " Because the love of God is shed abroad in 
our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." 
If you should ask me what the Church in America most 
lacks, I should say, Love. Let this love sink down 
deep into your hearts. It has power with infidels and 
skeptics. You cannot save them by argument but you 
may by love. God gave his disciples a badge ; it was 
the badge of love. " By this shall all men know that ye 
are my disciples if ye love one another." There can be no 



Ai2 Dwight L. Moody: 



life in a Church without love. A minister with a power- 
ful intellect is of no use unless he has this love, and the 
power which comes from the Holy Ghost. Now the 
great question is, "Have we got that love?" Not, do 
you love those that love you, but do you love those who 
are your enemies? To love the men that persecute us, 
that slander us, that spread false reports about us, we 
need the Holy Ghost shed abroad in us ; and if we have 
that love, a great many sinners will be reached in a little 
while. 

Romans xv, 13, "Now the God of hope fill you with 
all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in 
hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." Thus you 
see the Holy Ghost imparts not only love but hope. 
Christ doesn't use discouraged people for his work. He 
likes hopeful people. If your minister is cold, warm up 
yourself. One man with his soul full of hope and fire 
can rouse a whole Church. You like to meet a man that 
is full of hope. Our dear, lamented friend, Mr. Bliss, 
was one 01 these men. He used to set my heart on fire. 
He was full of hope, and I believe that was how he was 
enabled to write us those beautiful hymns we sing. He 
was full of the life of the Holy Ghost. 

There is one thing more that the Holy Ghost gives 
us, and that is, liberty. " Now the Lord is that Spirit : 
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, theie is liberty." 
2 Cor. iii, 17. " Liberty " is what is wanted in the pulpit 
and in the prayer-meeting, and when this liberty comes 
people will no longer be afraid to rise up before the law- 
yer or the learned man who comes to criticise. When 
we have this liberty how easy it is to preach ! Work 



His Sermons. 413 

does not kill men ; they die of working at a disadvan- 
tage ; working without the liberty of the Spirit God's 
yoke is easy ; his burden is light ; and this liberty is 
free to you if you will have it ; you have only to ask 
for it, 

[In concluding, Mr. Moody asked all to join with him 
in prayer for these three graces of the Holy Ghost — love 
hope — liberty.] 



THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 

On resuming the subject of the work of the Holy Spirit Mr. Moody 
read the lesson for the day, which was the sixteenth chapter of John, 
upon which he made the following brief comments, beginning with 
the seventh verse : — 

" Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; It is expedient 
for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the Com- 
forter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send 
him unto you." Christ does not talk like a man who is 
going down into the grave, never to be seen again by his 
disciples. It is true he tells them he is to be killed, but 
he is to rise again, and go up to heaven to prepare a 
place for them. Those who attack the divinity of Christ 
do not believe that he is risen from the dead, and inter- 
ceding for us before the Father ; and that he sends the 
Holy Spirit to comfort and enlighten those who believe 
on him. I am glad that the public mind is agitated on 
this question, " Who is Christ?" If he is not the Son 
of God 1 don't know of any body who can tell us who he 
is. If he is no more than a good man, we must throw 
away the whole of the Gospel of John. 

" It is expedient for you that I go away." Christ has 



4H Dwight L. Moody: 

gone away on an errand for us : and what better place 
could he choose to be of service to us than up in heaven 
before his Father's throne? Here we have Satan for an 
accuser ; there we have Christ for an advocate : and, 
what is more, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is 
every-where teaching and comforting believers. When 
any of iiis friends are in trouble Christ looks down from 
heaven and sees them, and perhaps sends an angel to 
comfort and help them ; but if he does not send an angel 
he does send the Holy Spirit. 

In the eighth and ninth ^erses we have these words : 
" And when he [the Holy Spirit] is come, he will reprove 
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." 
Of sin, why? Because men murder, and steal, and lie, 
and swear, and get drunk ? There are a good many 
people who think it is the principal office of the Holy 
Spirit to convict men of these sins; but the Scripture 
does not read so. It says, " Of sin, because they believe 
not on me." Unbelief is the world's worst enemy. 
Christ met it on both sides of the cross. This is the tree 
that brings forth all the bitter fruit. 

Sinners often try to shield themselves from the com- 
ing judgment for their sins by pretending not to believe 
in punishment at all ; but it is far better for the sinner 
to admit his condemnation and escape to Christ, than 
to go on in self-deception and perish at last. You can 
hardly find a rum-seller in Boston but will tell you he 
don't believe the Bible. He doesn't read it, because he 
knows it condemns him. 

It is a good thing that it is the work of the Holy 
Spirit to convince the world of their sins, for we are not 



His Sermons. 415 

able to do it. I should feel overwhelmed at the idea of 
facing such an audience as this if I had the responsi- 
bility on me of convincing you all of your sins. 



CONVICTION. 

In the seventh chapter of Acts, fifty-first verse, we read : 
" Ye stiffnecked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears 
ye do always resist the Holy Ghost : as your father 
did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your 
fathers persecuted ? and they have slain them which 
showed before of the coming of the Just One ; of whom 
ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: who 
have received the law by the disposition of angels, and 
have not kept it. When they heard these things, they 
were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with 
their teeth." 

You see their hearts were cut to the quick on the day 
of Pentecost. And so it was when Stephen preached his 
last sermon. He didn't keep any thing back. He knew 
that it would cost him his life to preach the truth, but 
he did it. " Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.'' 
That is what the world is doing to-day — resisting. 

Why do men resist the Holy Ghost? Because "He 
will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and 
of judgment." He tells men their faults. He don't tell 
a man how noble and how great he is : the devil has 
been doing that for six thousand years. The Holy 
Spirit don't flatter sinners ; and that is the reason a 
great many don't like Holy Ghost preaching, because it 
convinces them of sin. You tell a man his faults, and he 



•416 Dwight L. Moody: 

will get mad ; but I had a great deal rather you would 
tell me my faults than let me go down to death. 

Some people think that the broad road is an easy way, 
but I tell you it is a very hard way. You have to pass 
over the prayers of your best friends, and all the way 
down from the cradle to the grave you have to resist the 
Holy Ghost. " Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." 
If men would only stop resisting, and come to them- 
selves, and be led by that Spirit, he would lead them 
into all truth. 

There are more people ruined by flattery than by tell- 
ing them their faults. We once found a man in Chicago 
sleeping on the sidewalk. It was one of the coldest 
days of the season,' and we knew he would freeze to 
death if we didn't wake him. So we woke him, and he 
got mad with us. That was just what we wanted — to 
get his blood stirred, and then he would be all right. 
So sometimes the Holy Ghost wakes up men, and they 
wake up mad. But that is a good sign : it is better to 
have them wake up cross than sleepy, because the devil 
can't rock them to sleep again easy. 

O that we may have preaching that will wake people 
up and set their consciences at work ! 

In the second of Corinthians, third chapter and sixth 
verse, there is something I want to cr.ll your attention 
to. But first let me tell you of a circumstance. A 
lady came to me some time ago and wanted to know 
why it was they hadn't any conversions in her Church ? 
She said that the minister preached good sound ortho- 
dox doctrine, every sermon was sound ; there was no 
trouble about that. I said, that might be, but there 



His Sermons. 417 

must be something besides sound doctrine. I don't know 
of any thing more disheartening than dead orthodoxy. 
I fear that more than all the isms. Orthodoxy, dead, is 
an abomination to God and man. We want to hold 
these truths, not In any formal way, but in living power; 
and if men lived what they profess to believe and 
preach, Christianity would have a mighty influence in 
this world. 

I think this verse (2 Corinthians iii, 6) throws light 
upon this point : " Who also hath made us able minis- 
ters of the new testament ; not of the letter, but of the 
spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." 

Let us see. If we have sound doctrine only, and not 
the Spirit of God back of the doctrine, it doesn't bring 
life to the heart. " The letter killeth," and that is what 
" dead orthodoxy " is doing. " The letter killeth," but 
the Spirit giveth life." 



OUR LEADER. 

The next work of the Holy Spirit I want you to study 
is his leadership. Take Galatians v, 18, " But if ye be 
led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law." Now every 
child of God ought to be led by the Spirit, and as long 
as they are led by him they are led into light, and not 
into darkness. The Spirit of God never led any one into 
darkness ; and if there are any Christians here to-day in 
darkness, it is because they are not willing to be led by 
the Spirit. That is the way we are to get into the king- 
dom of God. 

Perhaps many of you have been talking with souls 
28 



4i8 Dwight L. Moody: 

that have been struggling and praying to get into 
liberty, and into God's kingdom, and you have watched 
their countenances as the light broke upon them and 
their faces have shone with a glorious light. Now that 
takes place when a man is willing to let the Spirit lead 
him ; that is, when he is converted. 

The conflict to get into the kingdom of God isn't God's 
fault. A Scotchman once said, it took two to bring him 
to God — it took the Lord and himself. A friend asked 
him what he did, and he said, " I fought against God, 
and the Lord did all the rest." That is the great trouble ; 
people are not willing to give up their own way, but 
when they are ready to surrender and be led by the 
Spirit of God, he leads them unto life eternal. O Chris- 
tians, if you will be led by the Spirit you will have an 
Instructor who will throw light on many questions you 
don't now understand. Those who are led by the Spirit 
don't know what darkness is ; but when we want our 
own way, and are led by the flesh and the motives of 
the flesh — when the world and the influences of the 
world lead us — then it is that we get into darkness. 
Let us ask ourselves to-day, "Am I led by the Spirit?" 

It says in the eighth chapter of Romans, first verse : 
" There is therefore now no condemnation to them which 
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but 
after the Spirit." If we walk after the Spirit our con- 
sciences are not all the time lashing us. I think that 
the trouble with a great many Christians is, they are 
all the time condemning themselves. Why ? Because 
they are led by the flesh, and not by the Spirit. 

But how are we to find out whether it is the Spirit ol 



His Sermons. 419 

God leading us, or whether it is the flesh ? Why, you 
will find it in the word: the Holy Ghost always quotes 
the word. You will find that a man who is full of the 
Holy Spirit is generally full of Scripture, and that will 
lead you aright. But a man who speculates, and has 
dreams and every thing else but the word to offer you. 
you cannot tell where he will lead you. If a man says 
to me that the Spirit told him so and so, I would rather 
have him draw on the Bible for what he is saying, and 
then I can know for sure whether the Spirit said it. 

If we only get into our hearts this lesson about giving 
up our own way and will entirely to God, and being led 
by the Spirit, we shall be saved from a great many of these 
dark hours, and from many a conflict with the enemy. 
Do you think Lot would have gone to Sodom if he had 
been led by the Spirit ? Do you think that men in Bos- 
ton would be troubled about their souls if they were led 
by the Spirit? Do you think that men would fail in 
business if they were led by the Spirit ? It is this wild 
ambition to get rich, or to stand at the head of some pro- 
fession, that is ruining so many souls. Men are all the 
time taking false steps, because they are not willing to 
be led by the Spirit. 

The question of public amusements comes up, and it 
is asked, "Is it right to dance?" All I have to say is, 
If the Spirit of God says dance, then dance. Let the 
Spirit of God be your teacher, and you will see what is 
right and what is wrong. 

Men ask, " Is it consistent for me to go to the theater ? v 
Christ didn't really lay down any rule about that, men- 
tioning it in particular, but his direction is. that you give 



420 Dwight L. Moody: 

/ourselves up to the Spirit and the word. Then you 
will be guided aright and make no mistake. A man told 
me in Chicago that he had been converted, but he said 
he hadn't given up any thing: he hadn't given up the 
theater or novels, and wasn't agoing to give them up. 
Well, he went to the theater once after that, but he said 
he didn't care to stay. He couldn't read novels, for he 
hadn't any taste for them. The reason was simple 
enough : when a man is filled with the Spirit he wont 
love those .things he once did ; his love has been turned 
into another channel. Men say that they can't give up 
this thing or that thing, but only let the Spirit of God 
get into their hearts and they can. They can't do it of 
themselves, but they can through God helping them. 

You speak of this pleasure or that, but the teaching of 
the word is, that if you take the Spirit of God it will en- 
lighten you on all these points. 

A friend of my wife had a beautiful little boy about 
four years old who put his eye out with a pair of scissors. 
Since then my wife has always been very careful about 
scissors. But one day little Willie got them, and his sis- 
ter couldn't get them away from him. She knew that 
he was fond of oranges, so she ran and got one and held 
it up, and said, " Don't you want an orange ?" And he 
just dropped the scissors and went for that orange — that 
was better than the scissors. Now, that is just the way 
to treat the infidel, give him something better than he 
has got ; and if the Spirit of God gets down into his 
heart he will have something better and something that 
will satisfy him. Those who are led by the spirit of the 
w^rld cannot give up the world : they haven't found 



His Sermons. 421 

God; but when they begin to be led by his Spirit, he 
turns their appetites and tastes, so that what they once 
loved they now hate. 

An old citizen came to me last night, and said, " I 
hope you wont speak without having just a word for 
the poor drunkard." I do want to hold out a hope tc 
the drunkards. If they will only accept God they will 
get the world under their feet, and God will give them 
power to hurl the cup from their lips. No other power 
can do it. 

If you are led by the Spirit of God you can be saved. 
Now just give yourself up while I am talking, and say: 
" Spirit of God, lead me ; I give up all to you ; I make 
a complete surrender. God's will shall be my will, and 
his Spirit shall lead me from this day and hour," and see 
how quick he will come to your help. If you get your 
hand in God's he will lead you safely to the light. Don't 
think that he will desert you. He knows your life, your 
wants, your temptations. No soul ever went wrong 
when led by the Holy Spirit. 



A WITNESS FOR CHRIST. 
ANOTHER work of the Holy Ghost is to testify of 
Christ. He comes for that purpose. I believe the 
world would have forgotten Christ's death as soon as 
they forgot his birth if it hadn't been for the Holy 
Ghost. It had only been thirty years since his birth. 
All those wonderful scenes had happened in Bethle- 
hem, and were well known in Jerusalem, yet he seems 
to have been forgotten until he appeared to commence 



\22 Dwight L. Moody : 

his public ministry ; and they would have forgotten his 
death too if it hadn't been for the Holy Ghost. He 
came to testify of Jesus Christ that he had risen. He 
saw him in heaven, and he came to tell us he was there 
at the right hand of God. 

The Holy Ghost don't speak much about himself, and 
a great many people wonder why they cannot under- 
stand more about him. The fact is, he came not to 
speak of himself, but of Christ. " Howbeit when he, 
the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all 
truth : for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever 
he shall hear, that shall he speak : and he will show you 
things to come." John xvi, 13. 

His work is not to speak of himself, but to speak of 
Christ. Supposing I had an only son out in California, 
and a man came to me this afternoon and said, " Mr. 
Moody, I am going out to California, and I will probably 
see your son ; would you like to send any message ? " 
and I sent a message to my absent boy ; and when the 
man gets out there he talks to my son about himself! 
That wouldn't be what my boy would want to hear, but 
of his absent parents. And so the Holy Ghost comes 
to testify of Christ. That is his work. 

When a man preaches Christ, then the Holy Ghost has 
got something to do — to carry home the message to the 
hearts of the people ; but if a man preaches himself, his 
sermons have no power. If he preaches an error he can't 
be successful ; but when a man lifts up Christ instead of 
himself — when he lifts up the Son of God — then the Holy 
Ghost is at work carrying those truths down into the 
hearts of the people and making the word fruitful. 



His Sermons. 423 

We read that his work is to testify. You know that 
when Abraham wanted to get a bride for his son Isaac 
he sent his servant to Haran to get Rebecca. He 
told her all about Isaac's inheritance, and gave her 
the magnificent presents, and wanted her to go with 
him at once. Her parents wanted her to wait ten days ; 
but no, she went at once, and was led through the wil- 
derness by the messenger, to Isaac. It is these ten 
days that are the great fault with people. The work 
of the Holy Ghost is to lead us through the wilderness 
to Christ at once. 

The Holy Ghost is to tell us of God. If a man gets 
up in a prayer-meeting and talks about his love for God 
it chills me ; but if he talks about God's love for him, 
that fires my heart. 

In the fifteenth chapter of John and twenty-sixth 
verse, it says : " But when the Comforter is come, whom 
I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of 
truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify 
of me." When we begin to speak of Christ then the 
Holy Ghost begins to work. 

Peter, on the day of Pentecost, had the power of the 
Holy Ghost ; and when he preached, the Holy Ghost 
powei struck down into the hearts of three thousand 
people, and they were convicted and converted right 
then and there. 

Christ said he would send the Holy Ghost, and he 
was as good as his word. You may call that Galilean 
fisherman illiterate, but the Holy Ghost testified that 
day that what he said was true, and there was never 
such a successful sermon preached in all th^ wod^ 



.124 D wight L. Moody: 

before. Men can shut their ears against your words ; 
but if the Holy Ghost speaks to them they must hear, 
at least, whether they heed or not. 



INDWELLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
I want to call your attention to the three places in 
which the Holy Ghost has dwelt. 

In the fortieth chapter of Exodus, at the setting up of the 
tabernacle, the thirty-fourth verse says : " Then a cloud 
covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the 
Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to 
enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud 
abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the taber- 
nacle." No sooner had they got that tabernacle done 
than the Holy Ghost came into it ; and so if we let God 
just cleanse our hearts from sin the Holy Ghost will come 
in and fill them with faith. We are temples for the Holy 
Ghost to dwell in. 

Now, look at second Chronicles, fifth chapter, thirteenth 
and fourteenth verses : — 

" It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers 
were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising 
and thanking the Lord ; and when they lifted up their 
voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of 
music, and praised the Lord saying, ' For he is good ; for 
his mercy endureth forever : that then the house was filled 
with a cloud, even the house of the Lord ; so that the 
priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud : 
for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God." 

When Solomon offered his prayer the temple at Jeru- 



His Sermons. 425 

salem was filled with the glory of God. Now we want 
to have this tabernacle here in Boston filled with the 
glory of God. We want that cloud to come down upon 
us, so that when ungodly men come in here they may be 
moved by the Holy Spirit. We want the Holy Ghost 
power here for the sake of both the saved and the unsaved. 

We find that on the day of Pentecost the disciples were 
of one mind and one spirit ; so when we are of one accord 
the Holy Ghost will come and fill this place. Now if we 
are in the true Church — and the true Church is that 
which has Jesus for a leader, for he is the head of the 
Church — then the Holy Ghost will fill us, and we shall 
have power with God from on high. 

It says here in Ephesians i, 13, "In whom ye also 
trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the Gospel 
of your salvation ; in whom also, after that ye believed, ye 
were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is 
the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of 
the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." 
You are sealed by the Holy Ghost for the day of re- 
demption. What need you fear ? Who is going to break 
God's seal ? Can all the devils of hell do it ? Has man 
got the power to do it ? It is the blood that cleanses 
from sin. If we are sealed by the Holy Ghost who is 
going to break that divine seal ? When we are washed 
in that blood the Holy Ghost comes and seals us for the 
day of redemption. In Ephesians iv, 30, it says the same 
thing : " And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby 
ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." 

There was once a poor beggar who died. I call him 
poor, but he was rich in the sight of God ; though he did 



426 Dwight L. Moody: 

die in the poor-house, and they hurried him off to a 
pauper's grave. 

You know that paupers haven't many friends ; and as 
they were making all haste to get him buried, the minister 
who conducted the funeral said to them : " Walk softly ! 
you carry a temple of the Holy Ghost." Yes, the believer 
has become a temple of the Holy Ghost. We want our 
hearts purged from sin, and then let the Holy Ghost 
come and fill us as it did that tabernacle. Let our bodies 
first become a temple for the Holy Ghost, and then we 
shall have power to pray and to work for God, and be 
successful in our work. 



REGENERATION. 

We have for our subject to-day the third chapter of 
John. I will read, commencing at the sixth verse : "That 
which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born 
of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, 
Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it list- 
eth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh and whither it goeth : so is every one that 
is born of the Spirit." 

With this let me read a few verses in the eighth chaptei 
of Romans: "There is therefore now no condemnation to 
them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of 
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin 
and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was 
weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the 
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the 



His Sermons. 427 

flesh : that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled 
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 
For thev that are after the flesh, do mind the things of 
the flesh ; but they that are after the Spirit, the things, of 
the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death ; but to 
be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the car- 
nal mind is enmity against God : for it is not subject to the 
law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are 
in the flesh cannot please God." 

I think you will see by reading that why it is that a man 
needs to be born again. They that are in the flesh can- 
not please God. There must, therefore, be a new birth. 
A great many have come to me, and written to me, to say 
that they cannot set the day and hour that they were con- 
verted. I do not think it is necessary to know the day and 
hour when we were born of the Spirit ; the question is, 
Have we been born of the Spirit ? and we can find that out 
by putting the tests to ourselves. If we love the world, or 
ourselves, or our friends, more than we love the Lord, it is a 
good sign that we have not been born from above ; because 
if we have been born of the Spirit, God takes the first place 
in our hearts ; and if he does not do that, it is a pretty good 
sign that we have not been born again. If we cannot tell 
the day and the hour, but can say that we really do love 
God above every thing else — that God has the first place in 
our hearts — it seems to me good evidence that we have 
been born again. If we have not that evidence let us give 
up all our false hopes and seek a hope worth having. 

It says in the first of Corinthians, fifteenth chapter: 
"The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last 
A.dam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was 



428 Dwight L Moody: 

not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural : 
and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of 
the earth, earthy : the second man is the Lord from heaven. 
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy ; and 
as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall 
also bear the image of the heavenly." 

First comes the natural, then comes the spiritual. Some 
people have an idea that this is a thing they have got 
to educate themselves into, or grow into. Now, if this 
being born again is a matter of birth, it must be the work 
of God and not our work ; it must be something from 
above. It is not natural but supernatural. It is the Spirit 
of God turning the whole current of our life, because he 
says, in the Second Epistle of Corinthians, the fifth chap- 
ter and the seventeenth verse, " If any man be in CLrist, 
he is a new creature : old things are passed away , be- 
hold, all things are become new." Now it seems tu me 
as soon as we get this in our mind correctly we shall give 
up this idea of trying to save ourselves. I don't believe 
any man or woman is ever saved untiLthey get done try- 
ing to save themselves and let the Lord save them. 

I have heard an illustration which I think helps to clear 
up this point. A man buys a farm which has an old 
well on it in which there is an old pump. One of the 
neighbors tells him that he hadn't better use the water, for 
the man who lived there before was poisoned by drinking 
it He says, " I will see about that," so he takes and paints 
the old pump, and says, " Now that water is all right." 
Then he goes to pumping and drinking the water, and, ot 
course, he is poisoned. Now that is just what men are 



His Sermons. 429 

trying to do ; they paint up the old pump, when their heart 
is sending forth this poisonous water. If your heart has 
been regenerated, and you have been born of the Spirit, 
then your life will be right ; there will be no trouble then ; 
a man will not have to serve God ; he cannot help it, it 
becomes his nature. A man who has been blaspheming 
and swearing will not want to swear, because God has re- 
created him in the image of God ; he is born of the Spirit 
from above. If a man has not got this nature which 
goes out toward God, it is a true sign he has not been 
born of God. 

God's plan is altogether different from ours. Man is all 
the time trying to patch up and mend. God never mends 
any thing ; he always creates anew. When Adam fell 
God promised a new life through a second Adam : that is 
what we must have ; and when a man is born anew of 
the Spirit he has a heart that can serve God, and not 
until then. 

FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. 
Here is a passage I want you to read, in the fifth chapter 
of Galatians, seventeenth verse, that will help us to de- 
cide this question of whether we have really been born of 
the Holy Spirit or not. I believe that many people have 
been converted to some men, or some Church, or creed, or 
preacher, or some good choir — they like the organ per- 
haps, or the fine singing. I believe that is the way some 
men and women get into the Church before they are born 
of the Spirit ; and that is the cause of a good deal of mis- 
chief in the Church, and has got a good many members 
into trouble. 



430 Dwight L. Moody: 

You are not to rest your hope of heaven upon yourself, 
out look at the word, and see if you have passed from death 
unto life ; if you have been raised up by the Spirit of God, 
quickened by the Holy Ghost ; for that is the only life 
that will stand before God. There is such a thing as 
whitewashing men up and passing them off as Christians. 
That isn't the work of God. God begins at the heart, 
and cleanses that by the Holy Ghost. Now, in the six- 
teenth verse of the fifth chapter of Galatians it says : 
" This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 
fulfill the lusts of the flesh." And in the next verse.: " For 
the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against 
the flesh ; and these are contrary the one to the other, 
so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." 

There is a conflict between the old man and the new 
one, between the flesh and the spirit. They are at war 
with each other and will be to the end of time. Someone 
has said that there is always a devil at our right hand ; 
though if we resist the devil he will flee from us. But it 
is different with the flesh ; the flesh cleaves to us. I be- 
lieve that the flesh is the worst enemy we have. " But if 
ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now 
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adul- 
tery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witch- 
craft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, 
heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and 
such like : of the which I tell you before, as I have also 
told you in time past, that they which do such things 
shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 

Let us put the question right to ourselves : Are we 
bringing forth this kind of fruit ? Are we full of jealousy 



His Sermons. 431 

envy, drunkenness, revellings, and such like ? Recollect 
what the word says : " They which do such things shall 
not inherit the kingdom of God." I know a great many 
men who stand by and say that they can get into the 
kingdom of God whether they are born again of the Spirit 
or not, and do these prohibited things, but they make the 
same mistake as those who have heretofore disobeyed 
God's law, for he has said that men who do " such things 
shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 

Now we come to the fruit of the Spirit : love, joy, 
peace. Delicious fruit, isn't it ? You can't make a bad 
tree bring forth good fruit ; but if the tree is a good one 
it will certainly bear good fruit ; it can't help it. And 
so, if a man's heart is right, his life will be right. " The 
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 
ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance : against such 
there is no law." If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the 
Spirit. Somebody has said that you might, just sum up 
the fruit of the Spirit in one word — love. Love covers it 
all, covers all those nine things, " Love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temper- 
ance." The same person has put it in this way : " Joy is 
only love exulting, love just bubbling up -in our hearts ; 
peace is love in repose, love resting ; long-suffering is love 
untiring, the temper of those full of the Spirit ; gentlenesb 
is love in society, the way we act ; our gentler goodness is 
love in action ; faith is love on the battle-field ; meekness 
is love at school ; temperance is love in training." So 
really you can sum it all up in the word " love," " the fruit 
Df the Spirit is love," LOVE. 

29 



432 Dwight L. Moody 



ASSURANCE. 
Among the different classes of persons which we meet 
in the inquiry room are Church members who are not 
sure they are saved, and a great many Christian workers 
think if a person is a Church member that is all that is 
needed, and so they leave these doubting ones, thinking it 
isn't proper to labor with them. 

Many Christians live in Doubting Castle ; it is a 
very popular place, especially in this country. You inay 
ask them if they are saved, and they turn their back, and 
scowl, and say, " Well, I wouldn't dare to say I am saved ; 
that would be presumption ; I hope I am. I trust I may 
be." I have noticed that persons who held those views 
were not fit to work in the inquiry room ; they were not 
ready to point the way of salvation to others. 

If you have a hope according to the Bible you have 
something that is sure. We believe in the resurrection ; 
that is something that is going to take place : but, strange- 
ly enough, some of us don't believe in our own salvation, 
which has already taken place. 

If you vvill turn to your Bibles you will find that it is 
:he privilege of every child of God to know that he is 
saved. We haven't got to go through this world in ter- 
rible anxiety to know whether we are saved or not : that 
isn't the teaching of the word of God. The First Epistle 
of John is a very good book on assurance ; if persons 
would read that carefully and prayerfully on their knees 
about once a day, they would soon find out whether they 
were saved or not. John had a motive for writing that 



His Sermons. 433 

epistle. You know he tells us what he writes this for. 
He says : " These things have I written unto you that 
believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know 
that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the 
name of the Son of God." That ye may know / Now, 
if there are any Christians here to-day who have not God's 
assurance — don't know that they are saved — let them 
remember that it is the privilege of every child of God to 
know ; and instead of its being presumption to know that 
we are saved, it is presumption not to know that we are 
saved. If we have really been born of the Spirit, it is 
presumption for us to say that God has not settled it. 
Just look into that Epistle of John and you will find that 
he gives you the test whereby you can measure yourself, 
and find out whether you are a child of God or not. He 
puts it so plain that you need not make any mistake. 

In the third chapter of the first Epistle General of 
John there are six things worth knowing. In the fifth 
verse are these words : " And ye know that he was mani- 
fested to take away our sins ; and in him is no sin." Now 
if he has taken our sins away that is the end of them. 
They need not trouble us any more. The second thing 
worth knowing is in the nineteenth verse: "And hereby 
we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our 
hearts before him." The Spirit of God bears witness 
with our spirit that we are born of God ; we know that 
what we believe is true. We know God's work ; there is 
no uncertainty about it. The third thing is in the four- 
teenth verse : " We know that we have passed from death 
unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth 
not his brother abideth in death." There is no uncer 



434 Dwight L. Moody: 

tainty about it. We know. And if there is any person in 
Lhis house who professes to be a Christian and don't know 
it, let him before he sleeps find it out, and it will bring joy 
to his soul. The fourth thing is in the fifteenth ver«e : 
" Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer : and ve 
know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." 
If our heart is full of hatred we know we have not passed 
from death unto life ; there is no doubt about it The 
fifth thing worth knowing is in the twenty-fourth verse : 
"And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him 
and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in 
us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." The last and 
sixth thing is grace. I think a great many Christians live 
on dry doctrine, and never come to have a real, personal 
relationship with Christ. If we have Christ formed in us, 
the hope of glory, we know that we have the Spirit born 
in us. " Beloved, now are we the sons of God." Isn't 
that worth knowing ? 

Take up your Bibles and study the doctrine of as- 
surance, and you will find Job saying, " I know that 
my Redeemer liveth." It is the privilege of every child 
of God to know this ; and if there are any Christians 
here that don't know it, I advise them to have an early 
conference with some warm-hearted Christian who has 
this assurance, and get it for themselves. And let the 
workers in the inquiry room take out their Bibles and 
point out the right passages to all inquirers after assur- 
ance in Christ, for it is a part of our duty to help doubt 
ing Christians into this position of grace and power. 



His Sermons. 435 



THE INSPIRER OF PROPHECY AND PRAYER. 
Another work of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. " He 
will show you things to come." Newspapers don't tell you 
half the news ; they tell you what has taken place ; but 
this Bible is the only newsbook that tells you what is go- 
ing to take place. The natural man cannot understand 
spiritual things ; only he that is born of the Spirit. 

Some people do not believe in the supernatural working 
of the Holy Ghost upon the souls of men, but every man 
and every woman has sometime or other felt his influence 
and power. When the Holy Ghost first opened my eyes, 
I thought how blind I had been ! That is the way with 
the world ; it is blind, but doesn't know it. The Holy 
Ghost knows all the secrets of heaven, and it reveals to us 
the things that are important for us to know. 

Another thing he does for us is to inspire our prayers. 
He knows what God has for us, and he teaches us to ask 
it. One reason why our prayers are not answered is, be- 
cause they are made after the flesh ; because we haven't 
been taught by the Spirit how to pray. O that the Spirit 
of God may teach us how to pray ! that every prayer we 
make may be inspired by the Spirit ! then we will have 
power in prayer with God, the blessings will come ; our 
prayers will not go unanswered. Let us bow our heads, 
and ask that the Spirit may teach each one of us how to 
pray 



436 Dwight L. Moody 



THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. 
We find in Ephesians vi, 17, these words: "And take 
the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which 
is the word of God." 

If we don't know how to use a sword what is the good 
of it ? We may have the word, but if we haven't the Spirit 
of God and are not taught by the Spirit of God how to 
handle the word we don't accomplish our work. But if 
the word of God is hid in our hearts, and the Spirit of God 
teaches us how to use it, then it is that the word is sharper 
than a two-edged sword. If we can only just get hold of 
this word in our prayer-meetings and in our churches, we 
shall become a living power. 

What are ten thousand soldiers good for if they don't 
know how to use their weapons ? An army of five hun- 
dred, or even one hundred, could rout ten thousand if 
they didn't know how to use their arms. Let us have the 
spirit of this word, and if we understand it "from back to 
back" we can meet these infidels who talk so loud against 
the Gospel of Christ. People talk about studying books 
to meet them ! All the book you want is the word of 
God. God will come forth out of his own book and con- 
found them. 

You can't meet men with your opinion. Give up your 
opinions and just give them the word of God. He will 
take care of his word. It will cut down deep. They may 
fight and kick, and talk and swear, but just give them the 
word and the Spirit will do his own work. I have seen 
men come into the inquiry room just to talk and discuss. 



His Sermons. 437 

and get up an argument. Some men live on argument. 
Well, I generally take the Bible and give them a few verses. 
"But," they say, " I don't believe the Bible." Then I give 
them more verses, and they say the same thing, but I just 
keep on giving them the word of God. I am no match for 
infidels, but this word is ; this word tells all about them. 
There have been infidels for six thousand years, and prob- 
ably will be until the millennium ; but, thank God ! there 
wont be any then. The only way to meet infidels is to 
meet them with the word of God ; then they have got to 
settle all questions with the Spirit himself. 



THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR SERVICE. 
In some sense, and to some extent, the Holy Spirit 
dwells with every believer; but there is another gift, 
which may be called the gift of the Holy Spirit for 
service. This gift, it strikes me, is entirely distinct and 
separate from conversion and assurance. God has a great 
many children that have no power, and the reason is, 
they have not the gift of the Holy Ghost for service. 
God doesn't seem to work with them, and I believe it is 
because they have not sought this gift. 

In the opening of the eleventh chapt/*** of Luke we 
find the disciples asking Christ to teach them how to 
pray. After doing so he goes on to explain it, and in 
the ninth, tenth, and thirteenth verses says : " And I say 
unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye 
shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For 
every one that asketh receiveth. ... If ye then, being 
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children ; 



438 Dwight L. Moody: 

how much more shall your heavenly Father give the 
Holy Spirit to them that ask him ! " 

Now the lesson to be learned from this is, that we 
must pray for the Holy Spirit for service; pray that we 
may be anointed and qualified to do the work that God 
has for us to do. I believe that Elisha was a child of 
God before Elijah met him ; but he was not qualified for 
the work of a prophet until the spirit of Elijah came 
upon him. We have to ask for this blessing, to knock 
for it, to seek for it, and find out why it does not come. 
If we regard iniquity in our hearts, if we have some hid- 
den sin, God is not going to give us the baptism of power. 
We are not as " an empty vessel ; " we are not ready to 
receive the blessing, and so it doesn't come. 

In the third chapter of Luke we find that Christ was 
baptized by the Holy Ghost before he entered upon his 
ministry. This should teach us to get anointed before 
starting out to do the Lord's work. Christ was the Son 
of God just as much before his baptism as afterward, 
but even he needed this power; and if the Son of God, 
who never had sinned, needed it, how much more do we 
need it, and how hopeless it will be if we attempt to 
work before we get it. 

I generally divide the Church into three classes. The 
first we find in the third chapter of John. They are like 
Nicodemus. They have come to Christ and got life. 
Nicodemus got life and that was all ; he didn't get the 
moral courage to testify; and a great many Christians 
are just like him. They work their way up to Christ, 
and are satisfied with mere conversion ; they don't go on 
and get the baptism of power. The Church is lumbered 



His Sermons. 439 

up with that kind of material, making it into a kind of 
religious hospital instead of a Christian camp. 

The next class is to be found in the fourth chapter 
of John. The woman there mentioned met Christ at 
the well and got one draught of the living water, and 
she went and published the fact cf Christ's presence and 
what he had done for her to the whole town. That is a 
better class than the other . they have got so far along 
that they can testify for Christ. 

But there is still a better class. In the seventh chapter 
of John we find it written, " If any man thirst, let him come 
unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the 
Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of 
living water." This is the kind of Christians we want. 

In this country we have two ways of digging wells. 
One, as you who have lived in the country know, is to 
dig until we come to water ; then to stone it up, put in a 
pump, and pump up the water. Now, many Christians 
are just like that. They keep on pumping and pumping, 
and their preaching and praying is all hard and forced. 
But there is another way of making a well. You bore 
down through the gravel, and sand, and clay, down, 
down, till you strike the lower strata, and then up comes 
the water, a hundred feet high. That is the Artesian 
well ; and the Christians we want are those who are like 
Artesian wells. People say sometimes, they wonder some 
hard-working men don't break down. Well, it is a won- 
der that those who are pumping all the time don't break 
down ; but there is no fear of the Artesian-well people 
becoming exhausted. Let us have a few Christians of 
this class here and we shall soon feel their influence. 



44Q Dwight L. Moody: 

If we seek for this gift of the Holy Spirit we shall find 
it. God wants us to have it ; and when we are filled 
with the Spirit every body around us will feel our influ- 
ence. We shall then have the spirit of wisdom, humility, 
and meekness instead of going around scolding people: 
that isn't the work of the Holy Ghost. 

Again, those who really have it don't talk much about 
it They let other people find it out. Nothing makes a 
man who is filled with the Holy Spirit so mortified as to 
have people talk about him : all he himself thinks about 
is to exalt Christ. That is the only way to reach the 
world — holding up Christ to the people, and not trying 
to draw the people to yourselves. If you have the bap- 
tism of power they will find it out without any procla- 
mation on your part. 

In the twentieth chapter of John we are told of the 
disciples receiving the Holy Ghost. How much do you 
suppose those early Christians would have accomplished 
if they had gone out preaching before the power came? 

The rank and file of the Church need this baptism of 
the Holy Spirit just as much as the preachers. A woman 
with ten children to take care of needs it just as much as 
any body. A man harassed with business needs it ; there 
isn't a child of God on earth but needs it. 

We read further on, " And they were all filled with 
the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues. 4 ' 
You have noticed men who, when they stood up in the 
pulpit, seemed to speak with a new tongue. These same 
men used to speak with great eloquence and fluency, 
but it was like "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal;" 
nobody was ever reached by it. If the preachers in this 



His Sermons. 441 

city were anointed with this power how much good they 
might do ! This whole country would soon come under 
their influence. 

T believe this gift for service is a thing that the Church 
has mislaid. Conversion is one thing, and this is an- 
other, distinct and separate. It seems to me that the 
Church has laid it aside,, and the result is. that hundreds 
and thousands come into the Church without even seek- 
ing this power. Others, again, say they have this bless- 
ing because they received it ten years ago. They live 
on that, and seem to forget that there is such a thing as 
losing it. How many men can you remember who did 
mighty work ten or fifteen years ago who have none of 
the power now? They preached with unction from 
Heaven, and the blessing of God rested upon their 
labors ; but they have lost the power. They have for- 
gotten the great truth, that we must keep going to the 
Fountain-head to get filled. We must have fresh sup- 
plies. We don't get enough of Christ at once to carry 
us through life. The manna came down fresh six days 
a week, but it wouldn't keep: and the reason we have 
so many lean, half-starved Christians is, because they 
live on stale manna. 

We are leaky vessels and lose the power. We find 
that the disciples were several times filled with the 
Holy Ghost, and we should profit by their experience. 

Hundreds of men lose the power without knowing it, 
and they go on with their forms of preaching, and are 
astonished at their want of success. A minister came to 
me to-day and asked, " How can I keep free, and not be 
trammeled when I attempt to preach ? " If a man is 



442 Dwight L. Moody: 

filled with the Holy Ghost he isn't trammeled ; he has 
perfect freedom. Jeremiah said the Lord gave him a 
forehead of brass, and he went before the king as fear- 
lessly as before a peasant. When a man is filled with 
God he don't care about public opinion ; he is simply 
a mouthpiece to declare the word and will of God. " A 
trumpet isn't afraid of its own sound." 

I remember many a time I have gone from one place 
to another, and I have said, " God gave me success in 
that place, and now I shall have the same here." I have 
tried to carry on the work with the former grace and failed 
utterly, and I found I had to come right back and get 
fresh power. I believe that for every work we have to 
do for God we should get new power. The strength God 
gave me for Chicago woat do for Boston. I must have 
a fresh supply for the meetings here. 

When a man is thirsty he wants water, and so when 
Christians are thirsty they want the Holy Spirit above 
every thing else. The trouble at present is, there is not 
enough thirst among Christians. A man came to me 
the other day and said his pastor was troubled about 
something, and was in great distress. " Well," said I, 
" let him alone, he is all right ; he is thirsty, and going 
to get filled with the Holy Spirit." 

Paul went down to Ephesus and found some men there 
preaching the Gospel, and he said unto them : " Have ye 
received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" That is 
certainly a strange question if there is no such thing as 
receiving it after conversion. It may be that I am wrong, 
but I wish yoa would take your Bibles and see it this is 
so ; and if it is, then seek this gift. Letters come in from 



His Sermons. 443 

all over the country asking us to send men here and 
there. If we had a number of men anointed we might 
send them out as they were sent out from Jerusalem ; 
but there is no use of sending out men who are not bap- 
tized for service. 

When I first went to Scotland I was a little troubled 
about my theology, for fear it wouldn't jibe with theirs. 
I hadn't my forehead covered with brass then. At one of 
the early meetings I saw one man with his head covered 
with his hands, and I thought he was mortified about my 
theology. When the meeting was over he grabbed his 
hat, and away he went. I gave him up, and thought he 
wouldn't come again. He was absent the next few days ; 
but one day he came to the prayer-meeting, and there 
was such a change in him that I scarcely knew him. 
He then said he was thoroughly convinced that what I 
had said was true ; that he felt he had been preaching 
without the power, and that he had made up his mind 
to get it : so he went and locked himself in his closet, 
and God revealed himself to his soul. 

It was not a month before the people couldn't get 
into that man's church. I met him before I sailed for 
this country, and he told me that he hadn't preached a 
sermon since without some one being converted. 

Mr. Moody then gave the following summary of the passages 
bearing on this question : — Luke iv : Jesus was filled with the Spirit, 
and resisted and overcame the devil ; so every one filled with the 
Spirit would overcome the devil. Acts i, 8 : The disciples received the 
Holy Ghost, and then witnessed for Jesus. Acts ii, 4 : " And the> 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other 
tongues." Acts iv, 8, and Acts iv, 31 : " They were all filled with the 
Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness." Acts 
vi, 5-10 : Stephen was filled with the Holy Ghost, and no man could 



444 Dwight L. Moody: 

resist his wisdom. Acts ix, 17, 20, 22: Paul was filled with the 
Holy Ghost, and preached Christ. Acts xi : Barnabas was filled 
with the Holy Ghost, and many people were added to the Church. 
Acts xiii, 52 : The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, and great 
multitudes believed. He then concluded as follows : — 

And there will be great multitudes believing in this city 
if we get filled with the Holy Ghost. My friends, shall 
we seek this power? How many hearts here are crying 
for this fresh anointing ? Let it be a solemn question 
between you and God. How many want this new 
power? Shall we just stand before God and ask him 
for this blessing ? [About one half the audience rose.] 
Let us send up one united prayer that God will empty 
us of every thing contrary to his will, and fill us to-day 
with the Holy Ghost; that we may be like Barnabas and 
Stephen, and the holy Christians that did such wonderful 
things in the early days. 



EMBLEMS OF THE SPIRIT. 
I SAW some time ago a list of what were termed the 
emblems of the Holy Ghost, and I copied the proposi- 
tions. 

Water — Cleansing, everlasting, refreshing, abundant, 
freely given. 

There were some men who went to Africa — I think 
there was a colony wanted to settle. They went to one 
place, but were told that there was no water there ; then 
they went to another, but found no water. At last they 
came to a place where the inhabitants said the clouds 
were pierced above them, and there they made their set- 
tlement. Let us see that we get under the pierced clouds 



His Sermons. 445 

and have the Spirit of God coming upon us Let us all 
come under this outpouring of grace. 

Then comes FIRE as an emblem of the Holy Ghost — 
illuminating, brilliant, stirring. Wind — independent, 
powerful, unseen except by its effects. Oil — healing 
and comforting. Rain and DEW — fertilizing, refreshing, 
penetrating, abundant. A DOVE — gentle, meek, inno- 
cent, forgiving. A VOICE — speaking, guiding, warning. 
A SEAL — impressing, securing. 

Let us pray that each one of us may be endowed with 
the Holy Spirit from this day and hour. 



GRIEVING THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

AND grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye 
are sealed unto the day of redemption." Bear in mind 
these words were written to the Church at Ephesus. A 
great many have got the idea that it is the unconverted 
that grieve the Holy Spirit ;but here it certainly is the 
Church. To be sure, a man that resists the Holy Ghost 
may grieve him by not letting him into his heart ; but 
this was written to the Church. 

Again, " Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and 
clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with 
all malice." This forbids Church quarrels. The Mastei 
knows that after the devil gets into the Church the Holy 
Ghost cannot work. That is one way in which Christians 
grieve the Holy Ghost by quarreling among themselves. 

" And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, for- 
giving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath 
forgiven you," Now if we grieve the Spirit he cannot 
3<> 



446 Dwight L. Moody: 

work through us and use us. This is also an admonition 
given to the Church. 

Another way that we grieve the Spirit is by being 
yoked up with ungodly people. We want to be sepa- 
rated. There was a time when there was danger of the 
Church going over into the world, but I don't think 
there is so much danger of that now as of the devil and 
the world coming into the Church. Why, you see the 
height of the fashion in the churches ! We have even 
got theatricals in a good many of the churches ! Now 
the Holy Ghost is grieved in that way, by letting the 
world come into the Church. 

There is a great call for more intellectual power in the 
pulpit ; but that isn't what we need so much as the Holy 
Ghost power. Where can you find greater power than 
that which followed the simple preaching of Barnabas and 
Stephen ? " Why," they say, " if the minister preaches 
about the sins of the Church he will preach the rich 
people out of doors ; they wont stand it. We must get 
a man that will compromise between the Church and 
God, and make every body feel that they are all right." 
They want ministers to preach about the sins of the old 
patriarchs, but not about the sins of the present day. 
They are something like a man in Scotland : An old 
minister died, and a young man took the old church, and 
the first time he preached he began to bear down upon 
the sins of the congregation. After the service, the 
sexton, or the beadle as they call him there, took him 
aside and said: "Young man, if you want to be popular 
don't you speak about the sins of the present day, but 
bear down hard on the sins and the sinners of two 



His Sermons. 447 

thousand years ago : they will all like you then, but they 
wont stand hearing about the sins of the present day.*' 

But if we are going to honor the Holy Ghost we must 
give the message just as God gives it to us ; and if we 
are not willing that the man we put in the pulpit shall 
speak as the Spirit comes to him, then the Holy Ghost 
is grieved. Are the Churches in New England ready 
for that ? Are they ready that ministers should preach 
the whole truth, if it does cut to the heart? If a man 
has been defrauding his neighbor, are they ready to have 
that man preached about, and that sin brought to light? 
When we get sin out of the Church, we shall have more 
conversions in one year than we have had for the last 
fifty years. I know some people think it will drive away 
the moneyed men, and that the Church needs their 
support ; but it will bring God down into the Church, 
and we need him a great deal more. We don't want 
intellect and money so much as the power of God's 
word working in the minds and hearts of men, making 
them over anew : when we have that we shall see sinners 
converted. 

How many Churches do you think there are in New 
England that have that power? Why, I heard of a 
Church in Chicago that haven't had a conversion for 
eight years ! Think of it ! And some one praying for 
that Church said : " Give it one more chance, Lord, be- 
fore you spew it out of your mouth." I thought that 
was very appropriate prayer. 

The Holy Spirit must be grieved when Christians can't 
work with power. Let them not talk about the world 
grieving the Holy Spirit, but bring it home to them 



448 Dwight L. Moody: 

selves. Are we doing any thing to grieve the Holy 
Ghost that has sealed us for the day of redemption ? 

In I Thessalonians, fifth chapter and nineteenth verse, 
we find these words : " Quench not the Spirit. ' That 
was written to the Church. How do we quench the 
Spirit? By not being willing to let the Spirit of God 
lead us. We are all the time ti king God's work out of 
the hands of the Spirit into our own. We quench it 
by this terrible lukewarmness, by this coldness and stiff- 
ness which has come into the Church. Turn over to the 
fifth chapter of Acts, and you will find that he who does 
that resists the Holy Ghost. 



THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST. 

The question has come up (I often get letters concern- 
ing it) about the sin against the Holy Ghost. I don't 
know how many times I have been asked to explain that 
sin. A lady in the inquiry room last night was troubled 
on account of the sin against the Holy Ghost, and said 
that there was no hope for her. 

In Matthew xii, 31-33, we have these words : "Where- 
fore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy 
shall be forgiven unto men : but the blasphemy against 
the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And 
whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it 
shall be forgiven him : but whosoever speaketh against 
the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in 
this world, neither in the world to come." 

Now people read that, and just close the Bible, and 
say, " I did commit that sin, and therefore I have no 



'His Sermons. 449 

hope in this world or in the world to come." Matthew 
really leaves us in doubt, but when you turn to the third 
chapter of Mark, you find that Christ explains it himself. 
If we would only compare Scripture with Scripture we 
would get light upon many things we don't understand. 
No one need go on in the darkness about this question 
if they will only look and see what Christ said. 

Now read Mark iii, 22-29: "And the scribes which 
came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and 
by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. And 
he called them unto him, and said unto them in par- 
ables, How can Satan cast out Satan ? And if a kingdom 
be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. . . . 
And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he 
cannot stand, but hath an end. No man can enter into 
a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will 
first bind the strong man ; and then he will spoil his 
house. Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven 
unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soev- 
er they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme 
against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in 
danger of eternal damnation." 

Now people usually stop right there, instead of read- 
ing on. The next verse, the thirtieth, just explains it 
all : " Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit." 
This, then, is the sin against the Holy Ghost. 

Now in all my travels I have never found a man who 
thought that Jesus Christ was possessed of the devil. 
And I don't believe that any such man ever lived, ex- 
cept, perhaps, some one who had gone clean mad. Who 
ever heard any body say that Christ had an unclean 



450 Dwight L. Moody: 

spirit or devil in him, that helped him perform his 
works ; that ever said he was an agent of hell, or that he 
came from hell instead of from heaven, and was only the 
devil's instrument? I never heard of any such thing, 
and it is a question in my mind if any body in Boston 
has committed that sin. You may turn to Genesis, where 
it says that God's Spirit will not always strive with 
man ; but didn't those persons referred to live a hundred 
and twenty years after the Lord said that ? Men may be 
all their life sinning, dnd die resisting the Holy Ghost ; but 
I think that the Spirit of God strives with men more or 
less from the cradle to the grave, and the finally impeni- 
tent perish because they resist the Holy Ghost. The 
sin seems to be very clearly this : saying that Christ had 
a devil in him, and that he performed his miracles by 
the power of the devil. 

Infidels are the same to-day as ever. They don't be- 
lieve that Christ was the Son of God. But the devils 
believe it. They knew him well. " Art thou come 
hither to torment us before the time ? " was their cry. 
And so I hope that if any are stumbling over that sin 
against the Holy Ghost they will read that thirtieth 
verse of Mark and remember it : " Because they said, 
he hath an unclean spirit." If you really believe that 
the Son of God had a devil in him, and did all his work 
by the power of the devil, I think you are guilty of the 
unpardonable sin. 



His Sermons. 451 



SIN AND SALVATION. 

MAN A* FAILURE. 
" Ye must be born again." — John iii, 7. 

fAKE him where you will, and man has always been 
a failure. He was a failure in Eden and a failure out 
of it; a failure before the flood and a failure after it; a 
failure in the wilderness and a failure in Canaan. Hear 
what David says : " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity ; and 
in sin did my mother conceive me." Men are slow to 
find out that none are pure in the sight of God ; but 
the nearer they get to him the more they see their own 
sinfulness. Job could argue with his friends and make 
himself out to be a very good man, a benevolent man, 
such a man as you would like to have for an elder, or 
church-warden, or chairman of the Board of Foreign 
Missions. If there was an endowment to be raised for 
a theological seminary his name would be first on the list; 
but the moment that God said to him, "Gird up now thy 
loins like a man ; for I will demand of thee, and answer 
thou me," and then began to y.\\ to him a few questions. 
Job saw his sinfulness, and cried out, " I am vile. I 
abhor myself." 

No man is fit to come into God's kingdom till he learns 
this first letter of the alphabet ; but there are a great 
many who want to begin with Z instead of A. If a man 
don't believe he is lost to begin with, what does he wan? 
of a Gospel or a Saviour ? 



4$2 Dwight L. Moody: 

Did any of you ever go down into a coal-pit, fifteen 
hundred or two thousand feet, right down into the bowels 
of the earth ? If you have, don't you know that it would 
De sheer madness to try to climb up the steep sides of 
that shaft and so get out of the pit ? Of course you 
couldn't leap out of it ; in fact, you couldn't get out of it 
at all by yourself. But I'll tell you this — you could get 
out of a coal-pit fifteen hundred feet deep a good deal 
quicker than you can get out of the pit that Adam took 
you into. When Adam went down he took the whole 
human family with him. But the Lord, by means of his 
cross, has lifted us out of the pit of ruin. 

Now who was it to whom Christ said, " Ye must be born 
again ? " It was to Nicodemus, as moral a man, I pre- 
sume, as lives in the city of Boston. There is not a thing 
on record against him. He was a ruler of the Jews ; he 
belonged to the highest ecclesiastical court on earth at 
that time ; if he lived now he would be called the Rev. 
Dr. Nicodemus, and we would make him president of 
some theological seminary — perhaps give him a chair at 
Andover. He was a man who stood high, and yet this 
very man Christ said must be born again. 

I am glad this was said to Nicodemus and not to the 
poor woman at the well, because then the moral men 
in Boston would have said, " I hope the revival will reach 
all the harlots and drunkards in Boston, but we respect- 
able people don't need it ; O, no ! " But if Nicodemus, 
that moralist in Jerusalem, needed to be born again, so 
does every man in Boston. This idea, that you who are 
born in Boston don't need to be born of the Spirit, 
comes from the devil ; it don't come from the Bible. You 



His Sermons. 453 

can't find that anywhere ./1 the Scriptures ; the moralist 
of Boston needs to be converted as much as the drunk- 
ard. " Except ye be converted, ye shall not enter into the 
kingdom of God." " Except ye repent ye shall all like- 
wise perish," said Christ to the moralists of his time. So 
don't flatter yourselves that you are going to get into the 
kingdom of God without being converted ; or that the pool 
harlots and drunkards need to be converted, and you 
do not. The moralists of this audience need to be con- 
verted, for Christ said to Nicodemus, " Except " — put that 
word in there — " Except ye be born again, ye cannot see 
the kingdom of God." Wont you just ask yourself the 
question ? Let it come home to every heart to-night ! 
Don't think, now, I am speaking to the man who is next 
to you, or the man behind you. That is the way minis- 
ters lose about half their sermons. People are all the 
time lending their ears for some one else, and saying : " O, 
that will hit somebody else ; that is good for a man behind 
me," and he passes it over his shoulder, and that man over 
his, and so it goes out doors. Let it commence right down 
here to-night, and lodge in your hearts, and then let it go 
around all over the platform. Don't let any one excuse 
himself to-night. Let us have a heart-searching time. 
Let us ask God to show us whether we have been born of 
the Spirit, because it is a solemn question, a terribly solemn 
question ! " Except — a man — be born — again — he cannot 
— see — the kingdom — of God." I wish I could get you 
to think five minutes to-night. Just forget the preaching 
and the surroundings, and let the question sink down into 
your heart : " Have I been converted ? Have I been born 
of the Spirit ?" 



454 Dwight L. Moody: 

When I was born, in 1837, I was born after the flesh, 
with a wicked nature which I had inherited all the way 
back from fallen Adam ; but when I was born again, in 
1856, then I became a child of God. 

A Christian is the most remarkable thing on the face 
of the earth. He has two natures, the flesh nature and 
the spiritual nature ; and these two are at war, one against 
the other, until grace finally triumphs over nature. 

This world is one vast hospital. Everybody is sick ; 
everybody needs a physician ; but, thanks be unto God ! 
there is the great Physician, who is able to cure all dis- 
eases of soul and body. 

I heard of a young man, a surgeon in Belfast, who used 
to go into the hospitals, and when he found a wounded 
man, and was making ready to operate upon him, he would 
say to him : " Look at your wound, take a good look at it ;" 
and when he had come to realize what a bad, dangerous 
wound it was, he would say, " Now look at me :" and then 
he would begin to cut. 

That is the way with Christ, the great physician. He 
wants us to take a good look at our sick, sinful souls, and 
then he wants us to stop looking at ourselves and our 
sins, and look straight at him. Not one here, another 
there, and another somewhere else, but whosoever believ- 
eth shall be saved. God wants every one of his children 
in heaven. Somebody will say, Why, that is Universalism. 
Yes, the offer of salvation is a universal offer. "Jesus 
Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man." 

All you want to prove is, that you were born into this 
world, and I will prove to you that you have a Saviour, If 



His Sermons. 455 

you were born in the moon, or some of the planets, I 
don't know how the case may be ; but if you are human, if 
you are flesh and blood, you may be born again, born 
of the Spirit into everlasting life. 



"TEKEL." 
"Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." — Dan. v, 27. 

After briefly reciting the single scene from the life of king Belshaz- 
zar — the record of his one night of idolatrous feasting and revelry, 
wherein he and a thousand of his lords drank wine out of the holy 
vessels of the house of the Lord which his father had brought from 
the temple of Jehovah in Jerusalem, praising the gods of silver and 
gold — Mr. Moody pictured the fear of the king as the writing ap- 
peared ; the interpretation thereof by Daniel ; the entry of Cyrus 
and his army that very night, and the death of Belshazzar. — He 
then made the thrilling proposition to weigh all the souls then present 
in the balance of God's judgment, to see if they were not " Tekel," 
like the wretched Belshazzar. 

Men cavil now at God's word, and think themselves good 
enough to be saved without Christ ; but when the judgment 
comes their view of themselves will be altogether differ- 
ent. Suppose God were to give us notice that we were, 
every man and woman in this Tabernacle, to be weighed 
to-night in his balance, suspended from his throne in 
heaven and dropped down here before us, how many of you 
would be ready to be weighed ? 

Sinner, are you ready to be weighed on God's scales ? 
What shall we have to weigh with ? The law of God. 
"O," says some one, "1 don't want to be weighed by the 
law : that is gone by ; we are not living now under the 
law." But what does Christ say about it ? " Think not 
that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets. I 



456 Dvvight L. Moody: 

am not come to destroy but to fulfill." "Till heaven 
and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise 
pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Some men don't 
like the ten commandments ; they prefer the sermon 
on the mount. Ah, my friends, the standard of the sermon 
on the mount is infinitely higher than the ten command- 
ments. Well, now, are you ready ? Step in, then, and 
be weighed. 

I have heard some men say, "If I keep the com- 
mandments I don't need any Christ." That is true ; 
but if there is man or woman here to-night that has never 
broken the ten commandments let them step in and 
be weighed. 

Here is the first commandment, [taking up a piece 
of paper,] and we will suppose it is a weight like those 
little pieces of iron which they use for weights in com- 
mon scales : " Thou shalt have no other Gods before 
me." I will drop this into one scale, while you are in the 
other, [dropping it on the reading desk.] Have you no 
other gods before the Lord ? your wife — your children — 
pleasure — wealth — honor ? Do you worship God before 
all things ? Do you love him and worship him more than 
every other thing or being? Ah, I see you are too light ; 
the scale flies up with you. You are " Tekel " — weighed 
in the balance, and found wanting. 

Take another weight with the second commandment 
written on it : " Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 
image. . . . Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor 
serve them." O yes, says one ; I can be weighed with 
that commandment. But how many of you worship some 
idol ? It may not be in the form of a graven image, i| 



His Sermons. 457 

may be money, business, self. Now let me put in this 
weight also, [dropping the second paper with the first,] 
for it is not with one, but with all the commandments 
that you must be weighed in God's scales. 

How God's law goes down against you ! 

Here is a weight with the third commandment writ- 
ten on it : " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord 
thy God in vain." Young man, have you taken God's 
name in vain to-day ? Hear this : " For the Lord will not 
hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." I don't 
suppose men would think of taking God's name in vain 
if he had not forbidden it. Men don't swear by their other 
friends, by father or mother, by wife or children ; but just 
because he has said, " Thou shalt not take my name in 
vain," they say, " We will do it." Blasphemer, step into 
the scales. Ah ! you are " Tekel ;" you are lighter than the 
dust of the balance ; you are weighed in the balance and 
are found wanting. " O," you say, " but I swear only when 
I get mad!" Yes, and that shows that you have a bad 
heart, or else you would never think of taking the name of 
God in vain. That is no excuse ; God will not hold you 
guiltless. If he should say to you to-night, " Step in and 
be weighed," your soul would be lost forever for breaking 
this command. 

Take another weight [another paper] with the fourth 
commandment written on it : " Remember the sabbath 
day, to keep it holy." Have you observed God's sabbath ? 
Are you willing to be weighed against this command- 
ment ? Some of these Christians may say, " That cuts 
us too." Very well, let it cut. Woe be to the nation that 
disrespects God's sabbath. Are you innocent in this mat- 



458 Dwight L. Moody: 

ter? I have been talking with some of these street-car 
conductors, and they tell me they have no chance to go 
to the house of God ; they have to work on Sunday as 
well as on any other day. How many of you ride on 
the street-cars to come down to these Sunday-morning 
meetings ? 

O, you say, " We couldn't come if we didn't come by 
the cars." 

u I'll tell you what to do ! Walk. It'll do you good. I 
have had a rule for a long time not to do any thing to take 
away another man's sabbath. One day in London I had 
to walk ten miles to get to my four appointments, which I 
was foolish enough to make before consulting the table of 
distances. I went to bed that night very tired, but I had 
a clear conscience. I should hate to own stock in these 
street-railways. No man can work seven days a week 
and save his soul. 

Here is another weight [another paper] with the fifth 
commandment on it : " Honor thy father and thy mother." 
How many young people here are willing to be weighed 
against this law of God ? 

I have never known a young lady to marry against the 
wishes of her parents who did not come to trouble on ac- 
count of it. I think the general lack of honor to parents is 
one of the signs of the last days ; for we read that in the 
last days there shall be people " without natural affection," 
as well as the other sins that are mentioned. How many 
sons are there here who laugh at their mothers' prayers ? 
You may laugh now, but when God bids you step into his 
balances, and weighs you against this commandment, you 
will not laugh any more. Put it with the rest fsuiting the 



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His Sermons. 459 

action to the word.] We are not to be weighed by one, 
but by all the laws of God. 

Here is the sixth commandment : [another paper :] 
" Thou shalt not kill." Perhaps there is not a murderer 
in all this congregation, but is there any one here who 
ever got so angry with any one as to wish he were dead ? 
If so, Christ says that he is a murderer. " He that hateth 
his brother is a murderer, and we know that no murderer 
hath eternal life." Can you not see written up over you 
when weighed by this law, " Tekel, thou art weighed in 
the balances, and art found wanting?" 

Take the seventh commandment : " Thou shalt not com- 
mit adultery." This seems to be the most common of all 
sins, and yet it is of such a nature that we cannot preach 
about it very freely. Young man, are you guilty of this 
sin — guilty even in thought? How many men come into 
these inquiry rooms bound hand and foot with this infamous 
vice ! They are in the power of some harlot, and she says : 
"If you desert me I will expose you." Can you take that 
harlot with you into God's scales ? Perhaps you think 
your sin is secret, and no one knows it ; but let me tell you, 
God knows it. Many a man has been brought down to 
hell by that sin, and he hands down to his posterity evils 
that will follow them for generations. Arise, shake your- 
self like Samson ; confess your sin to God ; break :t off; 
leave the way to the house of her whose feet take hold 
on hell ! Tekel ! Tekel ! Tekel ! 

Here is the eighth commandment : " Thou shalt not 

steaL" There may be some thieves here to-night ; some 

clerk who has taken five cents of his employer's money to 

get a cigar, or ten cents to get a shave ; but he is just as 

3i 



460 Dwight L. Moody: 

truly a thief as if he had stolen a thousand dollars. Don't 
you see how quick it will bring you to ruin ? It is a thou- 
sand times better to go up to heaven from some poor- 
house than to go down to hell from a gilded palace. Put 
it with the rest, [he did so,] for we must be weighed 
against them all. 

The ninth commandment: "Thou shalt not bear false 
witness against thy neighbor." Are you guilty of saying 
any thing against your neighbor that is not true ? Or, in 
other words, are you guilty of lying ? And here is the 
tenth, " Thou shalt not covet." Have you never coveted 
your neighbor's wealth ? I used to sin that way very of ten 
before I was converted. 

And now let us add the new commandment which Christ 
gave, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and 
with all thy mind ; and thy neighbor as thyself." Is love 
reigning in your heart ? Are you selfish ? Is your heart 
set on this world and not on God ? This is one of the 
commandments by which you have got to be weighed. 

Here comes up a moralist ; he may suppose he has kept 
all these commandments — has never broken one of them, 
but when he looks at the scales he finds written on one 
side of the beam in letters of fire, " Except a man be born 
again he cannot see the kingdom of God." He looks at 
the other side and reads, " Except ye repent, ye shall all 
likewise perish." And what is to become of the moralist 
then ? He may be as good a man as Nicodemus, against 
whom there isn't a word of complaint in the Bible, but it 
was to that very man that Jesus said, " Except a man be 
born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the 



His Sermons. 461 

kingdom of God." I would rather preach to this hall full 
of thieves, and drunkards, and vagabonds, than to a hall 
full of self-righteous Pharisees ; there would be more hope 
of their being saved, for it wouldn't take them so long to 
see their sins and turn to Christ to be saved from them. 

I should like to weigh a few different classes of people 
in these scales. Take the rum-sellers. Is there a rum- 
seller here ? You may say you will not be weighed, but 
the time will come when you must be weighed. God 
will put you in one scale, and that word in the other 
which says, " Woe to him that putteth the bottle to his 
neighbor's lips." Escape for thy life to-night, or the time 
is coming when you will look up and see written over 
you, " Tekel ; weighed in the balances, and found wanting." 

Now, shall we weigh the drunkard ? Here is God's 
word, " No drunkard shall enter into the kingdom of God," 
and when God puts you in his balances you will be lighter 
than vanity. 

There may be some cold or lukewarm professors of re- 
ligion here. What is to become of you ? You may say, 
" I belong to the Presbyterian Church, or the Methodist 
Church, or the Baptist Church." Well, are you ready 
to be weighed ? You are like the foolish virgins ; they 
had lamps — they had a profession of religion, but they 
had no oil in their lamps, no real saving grace in theii 
souls ; and when they came and knocked for admittance, 
the Bridegroom said, " Depart, I never knew you." 

Leave your dead formality; arouse yourself, for God 
says, " Since thou art neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, 
I will spew thee out of my mouth." "Tekel; thou art 
weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.' 



462 Dwight L. Moody: 

But I imagine some one saying, " I would like to see 
Mr. Moody put the test to himself." Well, my friends, I 
am ready any time to step into the scales and be weighed. 
Haven't I broken the law ? Yes. But when God tells me 
to step into his scales I shall take Christ in with me. He 
never broke the law, and his righteousness will be enough 
for me, The Son of God is more than all the command- 
ments, and if I am in the scale with him I shall not be 
found wanting. Christ is the end of the law for righteous- 
ness to every one that believeth ; and when death comes 
we who have Christ formed in us — who have received his 
nature and his righteousness — need not be afraid ; but they 
who are out of Christ, and are trusting to their own right- 
eousness, will find written over them, " Tekel ; thou 
art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." 



LAW AND GRACE. 

" For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus 
Christ." — John i, 17. 

I am going to talk to you to-night about grace. There 
are a good many people who don't seem to understand 
what it means. Well, I will tell you : grace means unmer- 
ited mercy, undeserved favor. Now, I want you to bear in 
mind that God is the God of all grace, but we shouldn't 
have known any thing about it if it hadn't been for Jesus 
Christ and his gospel. 

Men talk about grace, but they don't seem to under- 
stand it. These bankers talk about grace. If you want to 
borrow a thousand dollars, they will let you have it if you 
can give them good security : and they take your note for it : 



His Sermons. 463 

" Thirty days from date I promise to pay a thousand dol- 
lars." Then, when the time comes to pay it, they give you 
three days more than the thirty days, and they call them 
"days of grace," but they make you pay interest for those 
three days all the same ; and when the days of grace are 
up, if you cannot pay the money they will sell you out 
and take every thing you have got. Not much grace about 
that. If you want any grace you must go to God for it : 
his grace forgives interest, principal, and all. 

Now I want to call your attention to the fifth chapter 
of Romans and the twentieth verse : " Moreover, the law 
entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin 
abounded, grace did much more abound : that as sin hath 
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through 
righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our 
Lord." Now, sin hath reigned unto death, but grace hath 
reigned unto eternal life. It don't stop with death, grace 
don't ; it carries us past death, right through the grave, 
clear over into the Promised Land. In the first chapter 
of Joshua we read that Moses brought the children of 
Israel down to Jordan, but he couldn't bring them any 
further. He was the representative of the law, and 
that is where the law brings us to — to Jordan. Jordan 
means death — judgment. After bringing them to death 
and judgment, he couldn't bring them any further, but left 
them there. The law brings us to death, and there it 
leaves us ; it don't give life ; it never has given life, and it 
never can. Sin reigns unto death, but the grace of God 
hath reigned unto eternal life. So when Moses had 
brought the children of Israel down to Jordan, and 
couldn't go any further, then came Joshua and took the 



464 Dwight L. Moody: 

congregation over. Joshua means Jesus. And as Joshua 
led them over Jordan, so Jesus will take his people 
through the valley of the shadow of death over unto eter- 
nal life. John the Baptist was the last representative of 
the law. He brought the people who came to be baptized 
down into Jordan, and he left them at Jordan, and when 
Christ came he commenced where John had left off — He 
went into the Jordan and brought the people out of it. 
That is the difference between law and grace ; law slays 
a man, but grace makes him live ; the law takes a man to 
death and judgment, but Christ comes and quickens him, 
and gives him eternal life. Some people are lingering 
around Sinai yet : leave it and come to Calvary. 

See the prodigal son. He went away and lived a low 
and vicious life. He squandered all he had. He was a 
drunkard and spent his substance on harlots and thieves, 
but how did his father treat him ? Did he take him out 
and have him stoned to death ? No. That would have 
been his fate under the law I have read to you ; but see 
how his father acted toward him under grace. He met 
him with a kiss, and treated him with kindness and love. 
The law says, " Stone him ; " grace says, " Kiss him." 

When Moses was in Egypt he turned the water into 
blood : when Christ was on earth he turned the water 
into wine. That is the difference between law and grace. 
Law says, " Kill him ;" grace says, " Forgive him." 

Law makes us crooked ; grace straightens us. Law 
makes us vile ; grace cleanses us. 

When the law came out of Horeb three thousand men 
were lost. At Pentecost, under grace, three thousand 
men got life. What a difference ! 



His Sermons. 465 

When Moses came to the burning bush he was com- 
manded to take the shoes from off his feet. When the 
prodigal came home after years of wandering and wicked- 
ness he was given a pair of shoes to put on his feet. 

The law is a school-master ; a cold, severe man that 
is continually holding a rattan over you. Thou shalt 
do this, and thou shalt do that. This is the law, with a 
rattan at vthe back of it ; but under grace the school- 
master trios to rule the school with love. We had a man 
in the little country school I used to go to who was stern 
and harsh, and always kept a rattan handy. I can feel it 
on my back to-night. But after awhile there came a lady 
who tried to rule by love. 

That suited us. No more rattans. What fun we were 
going to have. 

I was the first boy to disobey, and she asked me to 
stay after school ; and then she talked to me with tears 
in her eyes, and said, " If you love me, keep my rules." 
I tell you I never broke any of her rules after that ! Just 
so Christ says, " If you love me, keep my command- 
ments." That is the strongest kind of an argument, and 
that is the doctrine of grace. 

Now the question comes, How are we to become pax 
takers of this grace? In the fourth chapter of Hebrews 
and the sixteenth verse we read : " Let us therefore come 
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, 
and find grace to help in time of need." God wants us to 
come and get all the grace we need. The reason why 
there are so many poverty-stricken Christians is, because 
they don't come to the throne of grace. 

It is related of Alexander that he gave one of his 



466 • Dwight L. Moody: 

generals who had pleased him permission to draw on his 
treasurer for any sum. When the draft came in the treas- 
urer was scared, and wouldn't pay it till he saw his master. 
But when the treasurer told him what he had done Alex 
ander said, " Don't you know that he has honored me and 
my kingdom by making a large draft ? " So we honor God 
by making a large draft on him. If there is a drunkard 
here who wishes to get control of his appetite, all he has 
to do is to come to Christ with a great draft. 

When Dr. Arnold was in this country — he is now in 
heaven — I heard him use an illustration in a sermon that 
impressed me. He said : " Haven't you ever been in a 
house where the family were at dinner, and haven't you 
seen the old family dog standing near and watching his 
master, and looking at every morsel of food as if he wished 
he had it ? If his master drops a crumb, he at once licks 
it up ; but if he should set the dish of roast beef down, and 
say, ' Come, come,' the dog wouldn't touch it — it's too 
much for him. So with God's children ; they are willing 
to take a crumb, but refuse when God wants them to go 
for the platter." God wants you to come right to the 
throne of grace ; come boldly, and ask great things. 

Awhile ago I learned from the Chicago papers that 
there had been a run on the banks, and many of them 
were broken. What a good thing it would be to get up 
a run on the bank of heaven ! God has been trying to 
get up a run on the Bank of Grace for the last eighteen 
hundred years, but he can't do it. 

Grace means pardon for the past, peace tor the present, 
glory for the future. Pardon and peace now, and eternal 
glory just beyond. 



His Sermons. 467 



FREE SALVATION. 

" \nd he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel 
to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ' 
but he that believeth not shall be damned." — Mark xvi, 15, 16. 

I like those texts that have such a good sweep that 
they take in every body. Some preachers have great 
trouble in getting their hearers to believe that they are 
included in the Gospel call, but surely every body is to 
be invited according to this farewell charge of Christ to 
his disciples. These words were uttered after Christ had 
tasted death for every man. Gethsemane was behind him ; 
Calvary, with all its horrors, was past ; he was just ready 
to go home to take his seat at the right hand of the 
Father, and was giving the disciples their commission and 
his parting message. 

I can just imagine all that little band of disciples who 
stood around him — those unlearned men of Galilee — those 
fishermen who had been associated with him for three 
years — I can imagine the tears trickling down their cheeks 
as he talked of leaving them ; and some of them thinking 
that the Lord didn't really mean that they should preach 
the Gospel to every creature, for he had hard work to 
make them believe that the Gospel was to be preached to 
the Gentiles. 

It seems as if the Jews wanted to keep the Gospel in Pal- 
estine ; but by the grace of God it would flow out ; it would 
go to the world because he had given orders that the Gos- 
pel should be preached to every creature. And now we 
find the messengers going to the four corners of the earth 
to proclaim the glad tidings of the Gospel of Christ 



468 Dwight L. Moody: 

But I can imagine that Peter says : ;< Lord, you don't 
really mean that we shall preach the Gospel to those men 
that murdered you. do you ?" 

" Yes," says the Lord, " go and preach the Gospel to 
those Jerusalem sinners, to those chief priests and Phari- 
sees ; go and hunt up that man that put the crown of thorns 
upon my brow, and preach the Gospel to him. Tell him 
he may have a crown in my kingdom without a thorn in 
it, and may sit upon my throne, if he will accept of salva- 
tion as a gift. Go find that man that spat in my face, and 
preach the Gospel to him, and offer him salvation, and tell 
him he can be saved if he is only cleansed by the blood I 
shed at Calvary. Go to the man that thrust the spear 
into my side, and tell him there is a nearer way to my 
heart than that. Tell him there is nothing but love in 
my heart for him. Go preach the Gospel to every creature!' 

After he had gone up on high we find the Holy Ghost 
came down on the tenth day, and then they began to 
preach. Now see Peter, standing there upon the day of 
Pentecost and preaching the Gospel to those sinners ; 
and as John Bunyan says, " If a Jerusalem sinner can be 
saved, there is hope for us all." 

Do you think God is mocking ? Do you think he is 
offering salvation to you, and then not giving you the power 
to take it ? The Gospel is preached to every creature, 
and do you think he is not willing that every creature on 
the face of the earth shall be saved ? 

I like to proclaim the Gospel, because it is to be pro- 
claimed to all. When I see a poor drunkard, when I see 
a thief, when I see a prisoner in yonder prison, it is a 
grand, glorious thing to go and proclaim to him the glad 



His Sermons. 469 

tidings, because I know he can be saved. There is 10 
one that has gone so far, or fallen so low, but that he ,^an 
be saved ; because every one of God's proclamations are 
headed " whosoever." That takes in all. 

In a prison the other day the chaplain said to me : " I 
want to tell you a scene that occurred here some time 
ago. Our commissioners went to the governor of the 
State and got him to give his consent to pardon out five 
men for good behavior. The governor said the record was 
to be kept in secret ; the men were to know nothing about 
it. At the end of six months the men were brought out, 
the roll called, and the president of the commission came 
up and spoke to them ; then putting his hands in his 
pocket he drew out the papers and said to those eleven hun- 
dred convicts, ' I hold in my hand pardons for five men.' 
I never witnessed any thing like it. Every man held his 
breath — it was as silent as death. Then the commis- 
sioner went on to tell how they got these pardons ; how 
it was the governor had given them ;" and the chaplain 
said the suspense was so great that he spoke out to the 
commissioner and asked him to first read the names of those 
pardoned before he spoke further. The first name read 
out was, " Reuben Johnson. Let Reuben Johnson come 
and get his pardon.' 

" He held out the paper, but no one came. He looked 
all around, expecting to see a man spring to his feet at 
once ; still no one arose ; then he turned to the officer of 
the prison and said : — 

" ' Are all the convicts here ? ' 

" ' Yes,' was the reply. 

" 'Then Reuben Johnson will come and get his pardon."' 



470 Dwight L. Moody: 

The real Reuben Johnson was all this time looking 
around to see where Reuben was ; and when the chaplain 
beckoned to him, he turned and looked around behind 
him, thinking some other man must be meant. A second 
time he beckoned to Reuben, and called to him, and a 
second time the man looked around to see where Reuben 
was, until at last the chaplain said to him, " You are the 
man, Reuben ;" and he rose in his seat and sank back 
again, thinking it could not be true. He had been there 
for nineteen years, having been placed there for life, and 
when he came up and took his pardon he could hardly 
believe his eyes ; and he went back to his seat and wept 
like a child. When the convicts were marched back to 
their cells Reuben had been so long in the habit of falling 
into line and taking the lock-step with the rest that he 
fell into his place, and the chaplain had to say, " Reuben, 
come out ; you are a free man." 

That is the way men make out their pardon — for good 
behavior ; but the Gospel of Jesus Christ is offered to those 
that have not behaved well. It is offered to all that have 
sinned and are not worthy. All a man has got to prove 
now is, that he is not worthy, and I will show him that 
Christ died for him. Christ died for us while we were yet 
in sin ; that is the glory of his gospel. 

When we were in London, Mr. Spurgeon one day took 
Mr. Sankey and myself to his orphan asylum, and he 
was telling us about the children — that some of them had 
aunts and cousins, and that every boy had some friend 
who took an interest in him, and came to see him, and gave 
him a little pocket-money. One day, while he stood there 
a little boy came up to him and said, " Mr. Spurgeon, let me 



His Sermons. 471 

speak to you. Suppose your father and mother were 
dead, and you didn't have any cousins, or aunts, or uncles, 
or friends to come to see you and give you pocket-money 
and presents, like the rest of the boys do, don't you think 
you would feel bad ?— because that's me ! " 

" I put my right hand down into my pocket," said Mr. 
Spurgeon, " and took out some money and gave him." 

Because that's me ! And so with the Gospel ; let every 
lost sinner say, " Christ died for me." 



RIGHTEOUSNESS FIRST. 

" But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and all these 
things shall be added unto you." — Matthew vi, 33. 

Now that is just as much a command as it is that men 
sha'n't swear. It is just as much a command that all are 
to seek the kingdom of God as it is that we shall not 
steal, or lie, or kill. People talk about the ten command- 
ments, but there are a great many other commandments 
in the Bible. Some people are wondering why it is that 
they don't prosper in life — why they don't get on better. 
To me it is a great wonder we get along as well as we 
do, going against all God's laws, and disobeying him con- 
tinually. If you had a son who wouldn't obey you you 
would not expect him to prosper, and wouldn't be anx- 
ious that he should, because prosperity in wickedness 
would be an injury to him. 

" Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteous- 
ness " — not our own. You may be seeking after your own 
righteousness ; but what does the Bible say ? " Seek ye 



472 Dwight L. Moody: 

first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." That's 
what we want — we want God's righteousness. Now, ii 
we are going to seek our own righteousness, of course we 
will not get into God's kingdom, because we cannot get 
there with our own righteousness ; it is only when we give 
up our righteousness — filthy rags — and seek God's right- 
eousness with all our hearts, that we get into the kingdom 
of God. 

" First," says the text ; but a great many people think it 
is time enough to seek the kingdom of God after they 
have attended to every thing else. What God puts first 
you put last, and what he puts last you put first. 

But some one will say : " Ah, Mr. Moody, that is well 
enough for talk, but you just get where I am — out of work 
— no money — no friends — a stranger in the city — and you 
would tell a different story." My friends, I know just 
what that means. I have walked the streets of Boston 
out of work, out of money, and not knowing what I was 
going to do for a living. The whole of my early life was 
one long struggle with poverty ; but I have no doubt it 
was God's way of bringing me to himself. And since J 
began to seek first the kingdom of God, I have never want- 
ed for any thing : God has added all other things unto me. 

But it will not do to seek Christ because of what you 
hope to make by it. I used to make a mistake on that 
point. When I was at work in the City Relief Society, 
before the fire, I used to go to a poor sinner with the 
Bible in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other. Dr. 
Chalmers used to forbid his missionaries giving away 
money or supplies. He said those things ought to come 
by other hands, and I thought he was all wrong. My 



His Sermons. 473 

idea was that I could open a poor man's heart by giving 
him a load of wood or a ton of coal when the winter was 
coming on, but I soon found out that he wasn't any more 
interested in the Gospel on that account. Instead of 
thinking how he could come to Christ, he was thinking 
how long it would be before he got another load of wood. 
If I had the Bible in one band and a loaf in the other the 
people always looked first at the loaf; and that was just 
contrary to the order laid down in the Gospel. 

If you obey this text you will seek the kingdom of God 
right now, before you do any thing else, before you go 
home, before I stop preaching and invite you to the in- 
quiry room. " First," means this instant. 

It is said that Dr. Chalmers once went to spend a few 
days with a Christian family, and when he arrived the 
mother said to him, " Doctor, there is my daughter ; she is 
away from God, and we can't get her to seek him, with all 
we can do." The good man promised to speak to her. 
So after awhile he met her alone, and said to her, " They 
bother you a good deal talking religion to you, don't 
they?" 

" Yes, indeed," answered the Scotch lassie. 

" Weil," said the doctor, " suppose I tell your mother 
that you are tired of this thing, and that no one is to say 
any thing more to you about religion for a year." 

The girl thought for a moment, and then replied : 
" Perhaps it wouldn't be safe to put it off a whole year." 

" Perhaps it wouldn't," he replied. " Shall we say six 
months then ?" 

" I might die in six months," answered the girl. 

"Quite so ; maybe we had better say three months.*' 
a* 



474 Dwight L. Moody: 

" But there is no telling what might happen in three 
months," said the lassie, now fully awakened to a sense 
of her danger out of Christ. 

" You are right," said the doctor. " Perhaps it is not 
safe to put it off at all." And down upon their knees 
they went, and the young lady soon gave her heart to 
Christ. 



SERMON TO FALLEN WOMEN. 

On Wednesday, December 8, Mr. Moody read the following letter, 
saying he had been in doubt whether to make it public or not, but 
did so with the hope that it might do good. He declared his earnest 
sympathy with the class of persons represented by the writer, and 
during the reading there was almost breathless silence. Nothing 
has produced such an overwhelming impression upon an audience 
since the meetings began, and the thought that the writer, who had 
evidently been a lady of culture before her sad fall, was probably in 
the house, added not a little to the interest with which the audience 
listened to her well-worded letter : — 
D. L. Moody. Chicago, December 7. 

Dear Sir, — I am a prostitute, and in perusing the daily papers I am 
often anxious to hear you say something for us and for our class. You admit 
into your presence and invite experiences from men who have been the 
vilest rascals, whoremongers, and villains on the face of the earth. You 
warn them to " come to Christ" in time to be saved, but you have not, 
since your stay in Chicago, to my knowledge, said one word of comfort 
to us. Several days ago I noticed that you ad\ ised young men who weic 
living with "harlots" " to leave them at once, and have nothing more to 
io with them." Would it not have been well to say, "Not only come 
yourself, young man, but try and induce those ' victims of man's lust ' to 
come with you ? " I have asked myself, Am I too low to be asked by man 
to come to Christ, when God himself has said, "There is none righteous., 
no, not one." There are young girls in this city who are leading lives 
of shame because of the lustful passions of men who have joined your meet- 
ings, and whom you have taken into the fold lately. What do you or they 
care for the waifs and stray ones thus ruined ? Is it right that such things 
should be ? Have you no word of comfort for us ? 

Mr. Moody, do you believe Jesus Christ, who died to save sinners, is at 



^His Sermons. 475 

the last great day going to discriminate between your reformed profligates 
and us, who have suffered a thousand times more than they die pangs of 
disgrace and the scorn of society on their account ? 

Remember, Mr. Moody, that God is a just God, and the rules and regu- 
lations of society will not cut much figure in the end. 

I think you are a one-sided evangelist, and pander more to the tastes of 
society than to your entire duty. You give yourself up to work for Christ, 
and don't half do it. Remember that Chicago has nearly as many aban. 
doned women as men. We need the comfort of Jesus as much as they, 
and are just as capable to remain steadfast in our reformation as they, not- 
withstanding we are ostracised from society while they are admitted into 
the best. 

Hoping when you next speak you will say something about our leaving 
our present lives, we, that is — some of us — will be there to hear what you 
say. Yours, 

A Sinful Girl. 

After reading the letter Mr. Moody offered a prayer full of deep 
and tender emotion for these poor fallen women, who, he said, were 
not a bit worse than fallen men. He then announced that he 
would try and speak a word on Thursday night to this class of per- 
sons, and earnestly invited them to come to the Tabernacle and hear 
the hope which Christ held out to them in the Gospel. Many in the 
audience were in tears. The impression made by the scene cannot 
fail to be a lasting benefit. The letter itself, however, is hardly a 
fair showing of the work of the revival. If Mr. Moody has been a 
"one-sided evangelist," the Woman's Evangelistic Committee have 
furnished the other side, and quite a number of just such persons 
as this broken-hearted woman have been rescued, sheltered, and 
saved. 

The announcement, as might be expected, drew an immense con- 
gregation to hear what Mr. Moody had to say to fallen women. 

At half-past seven the Tabernacle was full, but the stow-away proc- 
ess was continued until nearly eight, when the doors were reluc- 
tantly closed. The announcement that Mr. Moody would speak some 
words of Christian counsel and comfort to the fallen women of Chi- 
cago was the especial attraction of the evening. The choir and the 
audience sang together for half an hour with good effect, when Mr. 
Sankey entered and gave out the hymn " Ring the Bells of Heaven," 
which was given with great spirit. The solo and chorus, " Rescue 
the Perishing," was next sung, after which the Rev. Dr. Mitchell 
offered prayer. 

Mr. Sankey then sang "The Ninety and Nine," and Mr. Moody 



476 Dwight L. Moody: 

read the Scripture lesson from the seventh chapter of Luke, begin- 
ning with the thirty-sixth verse, being the account of the feast at the 
house of Matthew the publican, at which the woman that was a sin- 
ner washed his feet with tears, and wiped them with the hair of her 
head. 

The following words, entitled " A Sinner Forgiven," were then sung 
by Mr. Sankey as a solo with much tenderness and expression : — 

To the hall of the feast came the sinful and fair ; 
She heard in the city that Jesus was there ; 
Unheeding the splendor that blazed on the board, 
She silently knelt at the feet of the Lord. 

The frown and the murmur went round through them all, 
That one so unhallowed should tread in that hall ; 
And some said the poor would be objects more meet, 
As the wealth of her perfume she showered on His feet. 

She heard but the Saviour ; she spoke with but sighs ; 
She dared not look up to the heaven of his eyes ; 
And the hot tears gushed forth at each heave of her breast, 
As her lips to his sandals were throbbingly pressed. 

In the sky, after tempest, as shineth the bow, 
In the glance of the sunbeam, as melteth the snow, 
He looked on that lost one ; " her sins were forgiven," 
And the sinner went forth in the beauty of heaven. 

Mr. Moody then announced as his text the fifth chapter of Luke, 
thirty-second verse : " I came not to call the righteous, but sin- 
ners to repentance." 

THIS saying of Christ is also mentioned by Matthew 
and Mark, and when you find any thing recorded by 
several of the evangelists you may know it is some- 
thing of great importance. Christ had been cast out of 
Nazareth and had come down to live at Capernaum, 
where he found a publican by the name of Matthew, 
and said unto him, " Follow me." Matthew at once left 
all and followed Christ, and he was so rejoiced that he 
made a great feast and invited all the publicans to his 



His Sermons. 477 

house to meet his new Master. But now we find tv^ 
Pharisees at their old work — complaining. They found 
fault with Christ for receiving sinners and for eating with 
publicans, and their complaints were the occasion of his 
speaking the words of the text : " But their scribes and 
Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why 
do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners ? And 
Jesus, answering, said unto' them, They that are whole 
need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came 
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 
That was Christ's business, his profession, as we might 
call it. At another time, when the people of a Samari- 
tan town refused him hospitality, and James and John 
wanted to know if they should call for fire to come down 
from heaven and consume them, Jesus said, " Ye know 
not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of 
man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save 
them." Luke ix, 55, 56. 

Christ's mission is to save, and he will save every sin- 
ner in this house to-night who is willing to be saved. 

Some one may say, " I am too much of a sinner to 
.come to Christ." Why, my friend, you might just as 
well say, " I am too hungry to eat ;" or, " I am too sick 
to have a doctor ;" or, " I am a beggar, and I will wait 
till I get something before I ask any thing." 

There isn't any kind of sinner in Chicago but has a 
representative in the Bible. There were the publicans. 
The Jews thought them about ten degrees lower than 
any other people, and when they spoke of sinners they 
put the publicans first — " publicans and sinners." Some 
of them were the greatest villains that ever went unhung. 



478 Dwight L. Moody t 

It was their business to collect the taxes for the Roman 
government, and when the taxes were a hundred 
thousand dollars they would collect a hundred and 
fifty thousand, and keep the difference themselves. If 
there was a poor widow who couldn't pay the tax they 
would sell every thing she had to get the money. Their 
money was not taken at the temple ; priests would not 
speak to them, and the common people despised them. 
They were almost as bad as our rum-sellers. They were 
lost, and therefore Christ came to save them. 

There are persecutors, who will not suffer their wives 
and children to become Christians, who ridicule the 
religion of Christ, and do all in their power against it, 
just as Saul of Tarsus did ; but Christ saved him. There 
is the moralist and the Pharisee, the hardest kind of 
people to reach ; they think they are whole and need no 
physician, but Christ saved some of them even. Nico- 
demus was a Pharisee, and so was Joseph of Arimathea. 

But to-night I want to talk to another class, the fallen 
women. The world seems to think that if a woman falls 
there is no hope for her ; but there are such women in 
the Bible, whom Jesus sought out and saved, and I want 
to call your attention to three representative cases of 
this kind. The first is the one mentioned in the seventh 
chapter of Luke. She was awakened by the Spirit of 
God, and when Jesus came to that feast at the house of 
one of the Pharisees she managed to pass the servant at 
the door, and to get into the room where the Master, 
according to the custom, reclined on a couch at table 
in such a manner that his feet, instead of being under 
the table, rested on the couch behind. There were 



His Sermons. 479 

often a good many strange people following Christ, and 
when he went to a feast there was no telling who might 
come in along with him ; so I suppose this poor, sin- 
ful woman managed to get in along with the crowd. 
She had an alabaster box full of precious ointment, but 
her heart was full of contrition. Standing behind the 
Saviour she bathed his feet with her tears, and wiped 
them with her long black hair. The Pharisees argued 
that Jesus could not be a prophet, or he would not have 
suffered such a woman to touch him. One of the old 
prophets might have pushed her away. But Jesus knew 
what they were thinking of — young man, young woman, 
Pharisee, God knows what you are thinking of — and he 
said unto them, " There was a certain creditor which had 
two debtors : the one owed five hundred pence, and the 
other fifty ; and when they had nothing to pay, he 
frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of 
them will love him most ? Simon answered and said, I 
suppose that he to whom he forgave most." "Thou 
hast rightly judged," said Christ ; and then, after com- 
paring the woman's loving attentions with Simon's neg- 
lect, he tells him that her sins, which were many, are all 
forgiven. And in order that the woman may get it right 
he turns around and says the same thing to her : " Thy 
sins are forgiven." 

Some of you think you have some goodness of your 
own. A good many sinners think they can pay about 
seventy-five cents on the dollar ; some think they can 
pay ninety-nine cents, and they hope to make up the 
other cent somehow : others can't pay more than twenty- 
five cents on the dollar. None of these are in the wav 



I 



of being forgiven ; but when a sinner comes to under- 
stand that he can't pay one-tenth of a mill, that he has 
absolutely nothing, and comes to Christ for forgiveness, 
Christ is ready to forgive him all. 

How joyful that woman must have gone out from the 
feast ! She had come right to the feet of the Master 
and he had saved her from all her sins. And you may 
all do the same who hear me to-night ; come to the feet 
of the Master and he will speak the word that will make 
you blessed ! 

There is one thing I want you to notice. We haven't 
the name of any of these three fallen women that Jesus 
saved. People sometimes call societies for the reform 
of fallen women Magdalen Asylums, but there isn't a 
word in the Bible against the character of Mary Mag- 
dalene in this respect. It is true, she had seven devils 
cast out of her ; she might have been a maniac, but I 
don't think she was a fallen woman. If she had been I 
don't think we should ever have known her name. Christ 
will not tell their names because he wants those lost 
women whom he saved to have a place in heaven without 
any one knowing of their former sin and shame. 

The next is a careless woman, as perfectly indifferent 
when she first meets the Saviour as any woman here to- 
night, who has come to the Tabernacle merely out of 
curiosity. 

Mr. Moody then related the scene of Christ talking with the woman 
of Samaria at Jacob's Well, concluding with the remark : — 

Just see what that woman has done! She has be- 
lieved on the Messiah herself, and brought a whole town 
to accept him. The Son of God is not ashamed to talk 



His Sermons. 481 

with this fallen woman, and the result of it is, that she 
and a great many others are saved. 

The third case is that of the woman mentioned in the 
eighth chapter of the Gospel by John. Black, blacker, 
blackest ! Vile, viler, vilest ! This woman was taken in 
the very act of adultery, and the Pharisees brought her 
to Christ to hear what he would say about her. The law 
of Moses says those who are guilty of adultery shall be 
stoned to death, and they brought this poor fallen woman 
right before him and demanded of him whether she 
should be stoned. The woman herself was overwhelmed 
with shame : it was the first time she had seen Christ ; 
it was her first sight of grace and truth. Jesus stooped 
down and wrote with his finger on the ground ; I don't 
know what he wrote : perhaps with that same finger 
that wrote the ten commandments he wrote, " The law 
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus 
Christ." Then he said to the Pharisees, some one of 
whom may have been the first cause of that poor woman's 
ruin, " He that is without sin among you, let him first 
cast a stone at her." Then they left him, one by one. 
There wasn't a man of them that could throw a stone at 
the sinner. 

They brought the woman for judgment; why didn'i 
they bring the man also t 

They didn't know all about that woman as Jesus did 
Perhaps she hadn't any mother, and her step-mother 
had thrust her out on to the street ; perhaps she had a 
drunken father who neglected her, or led her into bad 
company; but when Jesus lifted up himself and asked 
the woman, Where are thy accusers? there wasn't one of 



482 Dwight L. Moody: 

them to be found. The woman expected to be stoned 
to death ; but instead of that she found grace and good 
counsel : " Neither do I condemn thee : go, and sin no 
more." 

If you study the Bible you will find that Christ took 
sides with the fallen women every time. You haven't got 
a better friend than the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to 
lift you up, and to save you from all your sins. 

A poor lost woman came into the inquiry meeting the 
other night, and fell upon her face before the Lord abso- 
lutely speechless with penitence and distress. At last 
she found words to say, " Is there any hope for me?" 
She thought she was too wicked to be saved, but after 
forty-eight hours of agony she cried unto the Lord and 
he heard and saved her. Let me say to these fallen 
women, Never leave this hall till you have settled this 
question for eternity. Never go back again to those 
brothels, where the devil has it all his own way with you. 
Die in the poor-house rather than earn your bread by 
sin. Think of the homes you have left, and of the fathers 
and mothers who mourn your loss and long for your 
return ; and think of Jesus Christ, who is the sinner's 
friend. 

Just before I came here to-night I received a letter 
from one of the fallen women. Thank God, his Spirit 
is at work among these poor sinners and victims of the 
sins of men. 

And here I want to say, the charge that Christian 
women refuse to help these fallen sisters is a false charge. 
Some of the best ladies in this city have come to me to 
offer to go and visit the women in the brothels, and asking 



His Sermons. 483 

for their street and number. I went to the police head- 
quarters and got all the addresses I could, and now these 
godly women are visiting these places by regular system, 
and trying to lead these poor girls to Christ. 

" Come right home with me, and stay -till you can find 
a home," said a lady to a poor lost girl who was weeping 
and praying in the inquiry room, and she actually was 
as good as her word. 

I hope there are hundreds of fallen women in the hall 
who will never go back to those places where they have 
lived. There is a Refuge ready for you, homes waiting 
for you, and if the Refuge is not large enough there are 
plenty of Christian men ready to make it larger. 



HOW TO BE SAVED. 

" Sirs, what must I do to be saved ?" — Acts xvi, 30. 

I LIKE these personal texts. Let this question go round 
this hall to-night: "Am I saved?" There are a good 
many people here who are anxious about their tem- 
poral salvation ; perhaps they are out of work, and if 
I were to tell them that I had employment for all that 
wanted it, what a crowd of people there would be press 
ing up to the platform to get it ! But I have something 
better than work to offer you to-night ; I come to offer 
you salvation. Some of you may have wrong ideas of 
what you must do to be saved. That young man whu 
came to Christ to know what he must do to inherit eter- 
nal life thought he was all right. He had kept the law ; 
but Christ put his finger right on the weak place in 



484 Dwight L. Moody: 

his nature — his covetousness — and the young man went 
away sad and unsaved ; he was not willing to make a 
complete consecration. 

Now the law says, " Do and live ; " grace says, " Live 
and do." Salvation is a gift ; if it were to be had for 
works, then it would be a gift no longer. When the 
Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas what he must do 
to be saved, they didn't say to him, " Go work, go weep, 
go pray ; " they told him to believe. 

I want to make the way very plain to-night. It is 
very simple. You may be saved right here before you 
go out of this Tabernacle. Look at the case of that jailer. 
He went to bed an impenitent sinner, and he was con- 
victed, converted, and he and all his family were baptized 
and received into the Church before sunrise. Quick work 
that. But if God is going to give us something, why 
should he be six months about it ? 

Now, there are two things you can do with your mind. 
The first is, " let go," and the second is, " lay hold." It is 
like a man I once heard of who fell asleep in a boat, and 
drifted down towards a fall, where he must be drowned 
if his boat went over. He just managed to reach the 
high rocky shore, and, finding it too steep to climb, he 
seized hold of a little bush and held on. When he tried 
to pull himself up, the twig began to give way at the 
roots, and there was nothing for him to do but cry for 
help. By and by people came and threw him a rope, and 
what did he do? He let go of the bush and laid hold of 
the rope, and his friends drew him up the cliff in safety, 
Now that is just what I am doing to-night ; I throw you 
the rope, and if you will let go of all else and lay hold of 



His Sermons. 485 

Christ, you may be hauled up out of your sin and danger, 
and place your feet on the eternal rock. 

But some one says, " I don't see it." Well, let me put 
it in another way. You believe that Christ is able to 
save you to-night, do you not ? " O, yes, I believe he is 
able." And do you not believe he is willing to save you 
to-night ? What does the cross mean, what does the 
death of Christ mean, if he is not willing to save sinners? 
To be sure, he is willing to save you ; that is just what 
he came into this world and died for. Would he die to 
save sinners if he didn't wish to have them saved ? Now 
the question is, Are you willing ? Salvation is offered you 
as God's free gift. Will you take it? 

The Scripture has another way of putting the case : 
** Look unto me all ye ends of the earth, and be ye 
saved." If you cannot lay hold, surely you can look. 

A lady I heard of had a dream. She thought she was 
in a deep pit, trying to get out, but after climbing up a 
few steps she would fall back again, till at last, quite ex- 
hausted, she lay down in the bottom of the pit to die. 
As she lay there she saw a star, and as she fixed her eye 
upon it she felt it lifting her, lifting her ; but, taking her 
eye off the star for an instant to look at herself, she fell 
back to the bottom again. This she did several times, 
but at length she fixed her eye on the star, and forgot 
every thing else, and it lifted her up, and up, and up, till 
at last she found herself standing safely on the solid 
land. Then she awoke, and said to herself, " I have been 
looking at myself long enough. Now I will look at the 
Star of Bethlehem," and in a little while she was happy 
in Christ. 



486 Dwight L. Moody: 

The Scotch lassie who was told to go home and read 
die fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and pray* to the Lord, 
and he would save her, answered, " I canna read ; I canna 
pray. Jesus, take me just as I am." Let that be your 
answer. "Jesus, take me just as I am." Do not go 
away and say, " I am going to try." There is no use 
in that. Stop saying " Try," and put the little word 
" Trust " in its place. 

Four years ago last Fourth of July two acquaintances 
of mine, both fine swimmers, went into the lake to bathe. 
Pretty soon one of them called to the other that he was 
drowning. At first he thought it was all in jest, but he 
swam out to where the drowning man was, who instantly 
seized hold of him, and held on with all his might, and 
they both went down together. While under the water 
the friend managed to get free, and when they rose to 
the top he said, " If you hold on to me that way I can- 
not save you, but if you will lie still I can swim ashore 
with you." The drowning man promised, but no sooner 
did his friend come within reach than he seized him again, 
and again they went down. It was only after a desperate 
struggle under the water that he could get free from the 
poor man ; and then, as they both rose to the surface, he 
was obliged to let the poor fellow perish right before his 
eyes because he would not give himself up to be saved 
without any efforts of his own. The thing for you to do 
if you would be saved is to leave yourself in the hands 
of Jesus Christ and let him save you. 

But I imagine some one saying, " If I could only get 
rid of some of my sins first, then I would come to Christ." 
No, that is not the way. If you want to cut down a tree, 



His Sermons. 487 

you do not begin with the small branches You lay the 
ax right to the root of the tree. 

Some years ago I went down into the country to hold 
some meetings, and among those who came was a well- 
dressed man in a handsome carriage, who I learned was 
the worst blasphemer and opposer of religion in all the 
country round. He seemed to be affected by the ser- 
mons, and I told some of my friends I was going to see 
him. 

"You had better not," was the reply. " He will only 
curse you." 

"That wont hurt me any," said I. So I went out to 
his house one day, and met him coming out of the gate. 

" Is this Mr. P ? " said I, calling him by name. 

" Yes," said he, throwing himself on his dignity ; " what 
do you want ? " 

4 I just want to ask you one question." 

" Well, say on." 

" I understand that God has blessed you more than 
any other man in all this region ; that he has given you 
a good wife, beautiful children, a fine estate, and every 
thing to make you happy, and that the only return you 
have ever made him has been oaths and curses." 

The man looked at me, stammered out an answer, and 
then said, " Come in." So I went in, and we talked of 
his duty and the way he might be saved, and then we 
got down on our knees and prayed. After prayer I said 
to him, " Now, my friend, if you are really in earnest 
about this, come to church to-morrow, and get up and ask 
the people to pray for you." He made some objection 
but he did it, and there went up a cry of prayer for him 



488 Dwight L. Moody: 

that showed how deeply his request had moved the hearts 
of all the congregation. That same night he was con- 
verted, and now he is an elder in the Church, and, from 
being the most dangerous man, he has come to be the 
most useful Christian in all that region of country. Old 
things are passed away with him, and all things are be- 
come new. 

" How long have you been a Christian?" said I to a 
little girl who was trusting in Christ. 

" Only since last night." 

" And how do you know that you are saved ? " 

" Jesus promised it," was her reply. 

O for simple faith in the promise of Jesus ! " Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." 

But some one will say, What am J to do with all my 
sins?" Do as Luther did. One night the devil came 
and wrote out a record of his sins, which covered the 
four walls of his cell all over, and then began to mock 
him with the question what he could do with all that 
load of guilt. But Luther answered, " Devil, you forget 
one thing. Just write underneath, ' The blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin.' " 



.tlis Sermons. 489 



LAST THINGS. 

HEAVEN. 

i'N the East London meetings, before a vast congregation in which 
the lov/er classes predominated, Mr. Moody commenced by saying : — 

JjTLF I were going to talk to you to-night about America 
qJs all of you would be very anxious to hear what I had 
to say; but now I am going to talk to you about heaven 
a good many of you wont care any thing for it ; and yet 
heaven is a great deal the better place of the two 

The Chicago version of this discourse is as follows : — 

I was walking down to the Depot Church in Philadel- 
phia one night when a friend said to me, " Moody, what 
are you going to preach about to-night ? " 1 said I 
thought I would try and preach about heaven. I no- 
ticed a little scowl came over his face at that, so \ said, 
11 What is the matter ? " 

" O ! " said he, " why don't you give us something 
practical? Nobody knows any thing about heaven; it is 
all guess-work to preach about that." 

"Well," said I, "if the Lord didn't mean us to talk 
about heaven he wouldn't have talked so much about it 
himself." We are told that all Scripture is profitable 
for doctrine, and we find that a good deal cf the Script- 
ure is on the subject of heaven. Stephen had a glimpse 
of it, and John had a great revelation of it. 

It would be better if we read more and talked more 
33 



49° Dwight L. Moody: 

about heaven, for that would help us to cut loose from 
this world, and to set our affections on things above. 

If you were going to emigrate to Russia, and I had 
just come from that country, and was here to lecture 
about it, you would listen to find out all you could 
about it : about the soil, and the climate, and the people. 
Now here is an account of heaven which is given by One 
who came down from heaven, even the Son of God. 
Besides that, there are accounts of some of the angels 
and other people who live there, and as you all want to 
go to heaven some time I think you ought to be inter- 
ested to know all about it. 

First of all, I want to say that heaven is a place, just 
as much as Chicago. A pantheist once undertook to tell 
me that God was not in any particular place, but that he 
was every-where in general ; that is, every-where and no- 
where. But any body who is well acquainted with the 
Bible knows that God lives in heaven. 

Do you ask me how far away heaven is? 

Well, I don't know. The sun is ninety-five millions 
of miles from Chicago, but it shines here every day. So 
I am sure that God, who lives in heaven, however far 
away it may be, is able to shine in upon us. His eye 
sees us, and his ear hears the faintest whisper of our 
prayers. He is a God at hand, and not afar off. 

Do you want to know who else besides God is there ? 
The Bible says that Jesus Christ is there. His disciples 
saw him ascend from mount Olivet, and he is there at 
the right hand of the Father advocating our cause for us. 
The angels are there, and sometimes they come down to 
us; for we read concerning them, "Are they not all min- 



His Sermons. 491 

istenng spirits sent to minister unto the heirs of salva- 
tion." The saints are there. We have an account ot 
that in the Revelation. The little children are there, 
for the Scripture expressly says, " Of such is the king, 
dom of heaven." And I hope, my friends, that some 
time all this congregation will be there. 

Some people are anxious to know whether they shall 
recognize their friends in heaven. Now I will give you 
a passage of the Scripture that settles that question for 
me. It is this : — 

" I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." 

I suppose that means we are to have every thing we 
want. Do you want to recognize your friends in heaven ? 
Then you will recognize them. 

Some man says, in speaking on this subject : "I do 
not feel at all troubled about the question of whether 
I shall recognize my friends in heaven. I have no 
difficulty in recognizing them here, and I don't ex- 
pect to know any less when I go to heaven than I do 
now." 

In Luke x, 20, Christ tells his disciples to rejoice be- 
cause their names are written in heaven. I remember 
how some of us were unable to find accommodation at 
the Great North-western Hotel, in Liverpool, and we 
asked one of our party where to go. 

" I am to stay there," he said. 

" How is that ? " 

"01 sent on my name in advance, and they kept a 
room for me ! " 

That is just how you ought to do, my friends : send 
up your names, and have them written in heaven, and 



492 Dwight L. Moody: 

there will be a place all ready and waiting for you when 
you arrive, prepared by Jesus Christ himself. 

Now just let this question go around this audience: 
r< Is my name written in heaven ? " 

" O yes ! " says some one, " I belong to the First 
Presbyterian Church." 

Well, that is a different thing. God keeps his books 
altogether different from what they keep the Church 
books. Judas was one of the twelve. Satan himself 
once sang halleluiahs in glory. Settle this question with 
yourselves, and then you who are parents ask yourselves 
another question, " Are my children's names all written 
in heaven ? " If not, whose fault is it ? 

Again Christ tells his disciples : — 

" Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 
where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves 
break through and steal : but lay up for yourselves treas- 
ures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth cor- 
rupt, and where thieves do not bre?ly through nor steal : 
for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." 
Some people seem to think that there are only ten 
commandments. They forget the eleventh, and a great 
many others besides. Now these words of Christ are 
just as much a commandment as "Thou shalt not steal;" 
or, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God 
in vain." There are a great many sad hearts in Chicago 
because so many people have been breaking this com- 
mandment. They have been laying up treasures for them- 
selves on earth, and the fire has swept them away, or the 
fall in real estate has made them poor, or they have lost 
their business, and they feel as if they had lost all they 



His Sermons. 493 

had in the world. Their hearts are broken because theii 
treasure is gone; but the difficulty was, they laid up 
their treasure in the wrong place. 

It don't take long to find out where a man's heart is. 
It is certain to be along with hi. treasure. You begin 
to talk with some men these days, and you find them 
all taken up with politics. Just mention the names of 
Hayes and Wheeler, or Tilden and Hendricks, and their 
eyes light up at once. They are full of politics : they 
think more about politics than they do about heaven. 
They talk more about the presidential election than they 
do about the election to eternal life. 

Why, my friends, perhaps up among the saints and 
angels they don't even know there is going to be an 
election here, or if they do know it they think of it as 
the merest trifle, hardly worth a moment's notice. 

Then there are others whose hearts are given to pleas- 
ure. You just begin to talk to them about the last new 
play at the theater, or some dance or party, and their 
eyes light up immediately. 

Other people give their hearts to their business. They 
think about it by day, and dream about it by night. 
When they go home from the office they haven't any 
time to spend with their children, they are so busy in 
thinking how they can make a few thousand dollars. It 
is business, business, business *11 the week, and when 
they go to church and the minister talks to them about 
heaven, they go to sleep under the sermon, or else they 
go on thinking about their business. 

An acquaintance of mine was veiy fond of investing 
his money in real estate, and when I asked him the rea- 



494 D wight L. Moody:. 

son of it he said, " O, I like to have my property where 
I can see it." And this is one reason why people don't 
like to lay up treasure in heaven. They forget what the 
apostle says, " The things which are seen are temporal, 
but the things which are not seen are eternal." 

We have a way of saying, " Such and such a man died 
worth his millions." Not at all. The man when he died 
was worth only what he had laid up in heaven. If he 
were ever so rich in this world, and hadn't any thing laid 
up there, he actually died a pauper. His heirs and the 
lawyers got all he had in this world, and when he went 
into the next he was worth absolutely nothing. Let 
every one in the house to-night ask himself this question, 
Where is my treasure? Is it in wealth, in houses, in 
lands, in money? Possibly these riches may take to 
themselves wings and fly away. Is it in reputation and 
honor? The tongue of slander may ruin the one, and 
you may ruin the other. Is it love and home and 
friends ? Death will come and take them all away. 

You remember that just before the great Chicago fire 
every body was wild about real estate. If a man only 
could get a corner lot somewhere he thought his fortune 
was made. During those days there was a minister 
down in Illinois who had a son in the real estate business 
in Chicago, and the old gentleman, being out of health, 
came up to visit his son and spend some time with him. 
He was very much troubled to see the young man so en- 
tirely given up to making money, and one day he said 
to him, " I would rather have standing room in the New 
Jerusalem than all the corner lots in Chicago." Some- 
times when the son was busy he used to get his father to 



His Sermons. 495 

stay in the office for him, and when people came in to 
talk about real estate, he would show them the lots that 
were for sale, and then, before they got through, he 
would always have something to say to them about their 
souls. The speculating men didn't like that, and the 
young man was obliged to send his father out of the 
office 

" We can't sell any real estate while the old gentle- 
man is there," said he ; " he is sure to turn men's minds 
away by talking to them about treasures in heaven." 

I once went out to California, hoping that God would 
give me a few souls on the Pacific Coast. The first Sun- 
day I was there it rained ; but I hunted up a Sunday- 
school, and found the superintendent just about to dis- 
miss it because of the small attendance. " I wouldn't 
do that," said I, "but rather thank God that so many 
have come out in the rain." Then he asked me to take 
charge of the school, as there were hardly any teachers 
present, and I did so. The lesson was this very text 
that we have to-night. So I asked for some one who 
could write well on the blackboard, and told him to put 
down in two columns the different kinds of treasure, 
treasures on earth and treasures in heaven. 

"What are the earthly treasures?" I asked. The first 
answer was gold ; the second, land ; the third, houses ; 
the fourth, horses — for they think a great deal of fast 
horses out there in California. Then somebody named 
tobacco. The teacher who was writing did not like to 
write it, but I said, " That is one of the treasures of this 
world ; put it down." Then some one else mentioned 
rum. " Yes ; that is one of the treasures of this world * 



496 Dwight L. Moody: 

there are thousands of people who sell their souls and 
bodies for rum ; put it down." 
Here are the two lists : — 

tcarthly Treasures. Heavenly Treasures. 

Gold, Jesus our Saviour, 

Land, Mansions, 

Houses, Crowns, 

Fast Horses, Peace, 

Tobacco, Joy, 

Rum. Love, 

Eternal Life. 

It didn't take much preaching after that. 

The man who did the writing wasn't a Christian. He 
had come out from the East full of a desire to make 
himself rich out of California gold, and when he saw 
these two lists he was convicted on the spot and con- 
verted to God right there at the blackboard. 

When people go up in balloons they take along a good 
many bags of sand for ballast, and when they wish to 
rise higher they throw out part of the sand. That is 
just what is needed in the case of a good many of this 
congregation. You are weighted down with the treas- 
ures of this world, and you want to throw out more 
ballast. Give away more of your money; lay it up by 
giving it to the poor; and then, instead of shaming you 
and keeping you from rising to God, it will be a precious 
treasure waiting for you in heaven. 

The next thing which we have in heaven is, rest. It is 
a common mistake to think of the Church as a place of 
rest. No, my friends, the Church is a place for work. 
" There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of 
God." You have got an eternity to rest in ; surely you 



His Sermons. 497 

do not need to rest in the Church. This is the time for 
hard work, and that ought to be a joy to you ; for youi 
work in the Church may add to the joy of heaven. The 
Scripture says, " There is joy in heaven over one sinner 
that repenteth." 

You have heard of that great rich farmer in this State 
who gave his check for ten thousand dollars to the Chris- 
tian Commission. When he had done it he took the 
agent of the Commission up to the top of his house, and 
showed him his farm stretching in every direction as far 
as the eye could reach. " All that you see is mine," said 
the farmer, proudly. 

" And what have you got up yonder?" 

" Well, I don't know as I have any thing laid up ih 
heaven." 

" Is it possible ? A man of your sagacity to lay up all 
your treasure where you will have to leave it all behind 
you in a little while ! " 

Before long that man died as he had lived ; and what 
a poor, poor man he must have found himself when he 
came up before God to give account of his stewardship ! 

Mr. Moorehouse was telling me that he once saw a 
water-logged vessel coming up the Mersey to Liverpool. 
It was loaded with lumber and couldn't sink, but it was 
down to the rail in the water, and had to be hauled up 
to the dock by a steam-tug. Just at the same time an- 
other timber-laden vessel came up the river with all sail 
set ; and Mr. Moorehouse said, " I thought those two 
vessels were like two kinds of people we have in the 
Church. There are the worldly professors of religion, 
who are so deep down in the cares of this life that it 



498 Dwight L. Moody: 

takes all the power of the Church to drag them along. 
They are water-logged ; out of all sympathy with the 
work of the Church ; full of complaints about the minis- 
ter and the members, and have to be taken care of very 
tenderly to save them from going down altogether. 
Give me the Christian whose heart is above the world, 
whose sails are filled with the gales of grace, and who, 
by the power of the Holy Spirit, sweeps through the 
stormy waters of this life right up to the port of heaven. 



HELL 



" But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst 
thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things : but now he is com- 
forted, and thou art tormented." — Luke xvi, 25. 

A MAN came to me the other day and said : " I like 
your preaching. You don't preach hell, and I suppose 
you don't believe in one." Now I don't want any one 
to rise up in the judgment and say that I was not a 
faithful preacher of the word of God. It is my duty to 
preach God's word just as he gives it to me ; I have no 
right to pick out a text here and there, and say, " I don't 
believe that." If I throw out one text I must throw 
out all, for in the same Bible I read of rewards and pun- 
ishments, heaven and hell. 

No one ever drew such a picture of hell as the Son of 
God. No one could do it, for he alone knew what the 
future would be. He didn't keep back this doctrine of 
retribution, but preached it out plainly ; preached it, too, 
with pure love, just as a mother would warn her son of 
the end of his course of sin. 



His Sermons. 499 

The Spirit of God tells us that we shall carry our 
memory with us into the other world. There are many 
things we would like to forget. I have heard Mr. Gough 
say he would give his right hand if he could forget how 
badly he had treated his mother. I believe the worm 
that dieth not is our memory. We say now that we for- 
get, and we think we do ; but the time is coming when 
we shall remember, and cannot forget. We talk about 
the recording angel keeping record of our life. God 
makes us keep our own record. 

We wont need any one to condemn us at the bar of 
God : it will be our own conscience that will come up as 
a witness against us. God wont condemn us at his bar ; 
we shall condemn ourselves. Memory is God's officer, 
and when he shall touch these secret springs and say, 
" Son, daughter, remember" — then tramp, tramp, tramp 
will come before us, in a long procession, all the sins we 
have ever committed. 

I have been twice in the jaws of death. Once I was 
drowning, and was about to sink, when I was rescued. 
In the twinkling of an eye every thing I had said, done, 
or thought of flashed across my mind. I do not under- 
stand how every thing in a man's life can be crowded 
into his recollection in an instant of time, but it all 
flashed through my mind at once. Another time I was 
caught in the Clark-street bridge, and thought I was 
dying. Then memory seemed to bring all my life back 
to me again. It is just so that all things we think we 
have forgotten will come back by and by. It is only a 
question of time. We shall hear the words, " Son, re- 
member ;" and it is a good deal better to remember our 



500 Dwight L. Moody: 

sins now, and be saved from them, than to put off re- 
pentance till it is too late to do any good. 

The scientific men say that every thought comes back 
again, sooner or later. I heard of a servant girl whose 
master used to read Hebrew in her hearing, and some 
time afterward, when she was sick of a fever, she would 
talk Hebrew by the hour. 

Do you think Cain has forgotten the face of his mur- 
dered brother, whom he killed six thousand years ago ? 
Do you think Judas has forgotten that kiss with which 
he betrayed his Master, or the look that Master gave 
him as he said, " Betrayest thou the Son of man with a 
kiss?" Do you think these antediluvians have forgot- 
ten the ark, and the flood that came and swept them all 
away ? 

My friends, it is a good thing to be warned in time. 
Satan told Eve that she should not surely die ; and there 
are many men and women now who think that all souls 
will at last be saved in spite of all their sins. 

Do you suppose those antediluvians who perished in 
Noah's day — those men too vile and sinful for the world — 
do you think God swept those men right into heaven, and 
left Noah, the only righteous man, to struggle through 
the deluge? Do you think when the judgment came 
upon Sodom that those wicked men were taken right 
into the presence of God, and the only righteous man 
was left behind to suffer? 

There will be no tender, loving Jesus coming and of- 
fering you salvation there ; no loving wife or mother to 
pray for you there. Many in that lost world would give 
millions, if they had them, if they had their mother? 



His Sermons. 501 

to pray them out of that place; but it will be too late. 
They have been neglecting salvation until the time has 
come when God says, " Cut them down ; the day of 
mercy is ended." 

You laugh at the Bible ; but how many there are in 
that lost world to-day who would give countless treas- 
ures if they had the blessed Bible there ! You may 
make sport of ministers, but bear in mind there will be 
no preaching of the Gospel there. Here they are God's 
messengers to you — loving friends that look after your 
soul. You may have some friends praying for your sal- 
vation to-day ; but remember, you will not have one in 
that lost world. There will be no one to come and put 
his hand on your shoulder and weep over you there and 
invite you to come to Christ. 

There are some people who ridicule these revival meet- 
ings, but remember, there will be no revivals in hell. 

There was a man in an insane asylum who used to 
say over to himself in a voice of horror, " If I only 
had — " He had been in charge of a railway drawbridge, 
and had received orders to keep it closed until the pas- 
sage of an extra express train ; but a friend came along 
with a vessel, and persuaded him to open the bridge just 
for him, and while it was open the train came thundering 
along, and leaped into destruction. Many were killed, 
and the poor bridge-tender went mad over the result of 
his own neglect of duty. " If I only had ! " 

A good man was one day passing a saloon as a young 
man was coming out, and thinking to make sport of him 
he called out, "Deacon, how far is it to hell?" The 
deacon gave no answer, but after riding a few rods he 



502 Dwight L. Moody: 

turned to look after the scoffer, and found that his horse 
had thrown him to the ground and broken his neck. I 
tell you, my friends, I would sooner give that right hand 
than to trifle with eternal things. 

To-night you may be saved. We are trying to win 
you to Christ, and if you go down from this building to 
hell you will remember the meetings we had here. You 
will remember how these ministers looked, how the peo- 
ple looked, and how it has seemed sometimes as if we 
were in the very presence of God himself. In that lost 
world you wont hear that beautiful hymn, " Jesus of Naz- 
areth Passeth By." He will have passed by. There will 
be no Jesus passing that way. There will be no sweet 
songs of Zion there. No little children either to pray for 
their impenitent fathers and mothers. 

It is now a day of grace and a day of mercy. God is 
calling the world to himself. He says, " I have no pleas- 
ure in the death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn 
from his way and live ; turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye 
die?" 

O, if you neglect this salvation, how shall you escape ? 
What hope is there ? May your memories be wide 
awake to-day, and may you remember that Christ stands 
right here ! He is in this assembly, offering salvation to 
every soul. He is not willing that any should perish, 
but turn to him and live. 

When I was at the Paris Exhibition, in 1867, I noticed 
there a little oil-painting, only about a loot square, and 
the face was the most hideous I had ever seen. It was 
said to be about seven hundred years old. On the paper 
attached to the painting were the words, " Sowing the 



His Sermons. 503 

tares." The face looked more like a demon's than a 
man's, and as he sowed these tares, up came serpents and 
reptiles ; they were crawling up on his body ; and all 
around were woods with wolves and animals prowling in 
them. I have seen that picture many times since. Ah ! 
the reaping time is coming. If you sow to the flesh you 
must reap corruption. If you sow to the wind you must 
reap the whirlwind. God wants you to come to him and 
receive salvation as a gift : you can decide your destiny 
to-day if you will. Heaven and hell are set before this 
audience, and you are called upon to choose. Which 
will you have ? If you will take Christ he will receive 
you to his arms; if you reject him he will reject you. 

Now, my friends, will Christ ever be more willing to 
save you than he is now? Will he ever have more 
power than he has now ? Why not make up your mind 
to be saved while mercy is offered to you ? 

I remember a few years ago, while the Spirit of God 
was working in my Church, I closed the meeting one 
night by asking any that would like to become Christians 
to rise, and, to my great joy, a man arose who had been 
anxious for some time. I went up to him and took him 
by the hand and shook it, and said, " I am glad to see 
you get up. You are coming out for the Lord now in 
earnest, are you not ? " 

" Yes," said he, " I think so. That is, there is only 
one thing in my way." 
5 What's that?" said I. 

" Well," said he, " I lack moral courage. I confess to 
you that if such a man [naming a friend of his] had 
been here to-night I should not have risen. He wquJIcJ 



504 Dwight L. Moody: 

laugh at me if he knew of this, and I don't believe I have 
the courage to tell him." 

" But," said I, " you have got to come out boldly foi 
the Lord if you come out at all." 

While I talked with him he was trembling from head 
to foot, and I believe the Spirit was striving earnestly 
with him. He came back the next night, and the next, 
and the next; the Spirit of God strove with him for 
weeks ; it seemed as if he came to the very threshold of 
heaven, and was almost stepping over into the blessed 
world. I never could find. out any reason for his hesita- 
tion, except that he feared his old companions would 
laugh at him. 

At last the Spirit of God seemed to leave him ; convic- 
tion was gone. Six months from that time I got a 
message from him that he was sick and wanted to see 
me. I went to him in great haste. He was very sick, 
and thought he was dying. He asked me if there was 
any hope. Yes, I told him, God had sent Christ to save 
him ; and I prayed with him. 

Contrary to all expectations he recovered. One day I 
went down to see him. It was a bright, beautiful day, 
and he was sitting out in front of his house. 

" You are coming out for God now, aren't you ? You 
will be well enough soon to come back to our meetings 
again." 

u Mr. Moody," said he, " I have made up my mind to 
become a Christian. My mind is fully made up to that, 
but I wont be one just now. I am going to Michigan to 
buy a farm and settle down, and then I will become a 
Christian," 



His Sermons. 505 

" But you don't know yet that you will get well.' 

" O," said he, " I shall be perfectly well in a few days. 
I have got a new lease of life." 

I pleaded with him, and tried every way to get him to 
take his stand. At last he said, " Mr. Moody, I can't be 
a Christian in Chicago. When I get away from Chicago, 
and get to Michigan, away from my friends and acquaint- 
ances, who laugh at me, I will be ready to go to Christ." 

" If God has not grace enough to save you in Chicago, 
he has not in Michigan," I answered. 

At last he got a little irritated and said, " Mr. Moody, 
I'll take the risk," and so I left him. 

I well remember the day of the week, Thursday, about 
noon, just one week from that very day, when I was sent 
for by his wife to come in great haste. I hurried there 
at once. His poor wife met me at the door, and I asked 
her what was the matter. 

" My husband," she said, "has had a relapse ; I have 
just had a council of physicians here, and they have all 
given him up to die." 

" Does he want to see me?" I asked. 

"No." 

' Then why did you send for me ? " 

" I cannot bear to see him die in this terrible state of 
mind." 

<s What does he say?" I asked. 

" He says his damnation is sealed, and he will be in 
hell in a little while." 

I went in, and he at once fixed his eyes upon me. I 

called him by name, but he was silent. I went around 

to the foot of the bed, and looked in his face and said, 
34 



506 Dwight L. Moody: 

" Wont you speak to me ?" and at last he fixed that ter- 
rible deathly lo"ok upon me and said, 

" Mr. Moody, you need not talk to me any more. It 
is too late. You can talk to my wife and children ; pray 
for them ; but my heart is as hard as the iron in that 
stove there. My damnation is sealed, and I shall be in 
hell in a little while." 

I tried to tell him of Jesus' love and God's forgiveness, 
but he said, " Mr. Moody, I tell you there is no hope for 
me." And as I fell on my knees, he said, " You need 
not pray for me. My wife will soon be left a widow and 
my children will be fatherless ; they need your prayers, 
but you need not pray for me." 

I tried to pray, but it seemed as if my prayers didn't 
go higher than my head, and as if heaven above me was 
like brass. The next day, his wife told me, he lingered 
until the sun went down, and from noon until he died 
all he was heard to say was, "The harvest is past, the 
summer is ended, and I am not saved." After lingering 
along for an hour he would say again those awful words, 
and just as he was expiring his wife noticed his lips 
quiver, and that he was trying to say something, and as 
she bent over him she heard him mutter, " The harvest 
is past, the summer is ended, and I am not saved." He 
lived a Christless life ; he died a Christless death ; we 
wrapped him in a Christless shroud, and bore him away 
to a Christless grave. 

Are there some here that are almost persuaded to be 
Christians ? Take my advice and don't let any thing 
keep you away. Fly to the arms of Jesus this hour. 
You can be saved if you will. 



His Sermons. 507 

Mr. Moody closed by reading the following piece of poetry, which, 
he said, had affected him deeply : — 

" I sat alone with my conscience, 

In a place where time was o'er, 
And we talked of my former living 

In the land of the evermore ; 
And I felt I should have to answer 

The question it put to me, 
And to face the answer and question 

Throughout an eternity. 

* The ghosts of forgotten actions 

Came floating before my sight, 
And things that I thought had perished 

Were alive with a terrible might 
And the vision of life's dark record 

Was an awful thing to face — 
Alone with my conscience sitting 

In that solemnly silent place. 

" And I thought of a far-away warning, 

Of a sorrow that was to be mine, 
In a land that then was the future, 

But now is the present time. 
And I thought of my former thinking 

Of the judgment-day to be, 
But sitting alone with my conscience 

Seemed judgment enough for me. 

4 And I wondered if there was a future 

To this land beyond the grave ; 
But no one gave me an answer, 

And no one came to save. 
Then I felt that the future was present, 

And the present would never go by. 
For it was but the thought of a future 

Become an eternity. 

" Then I woke from my timely dreaming. 

And the vision passed away, 
And I knew the far-away warning 

Was a warning of yesterday ; 
And I pray that I may not forget it, 

In this land before the grave, 
That I may not cry in the future, 

And no one come to save. 



;o8 Dwight L. Moody: 

I have learned a solemn lesbon 

Which I ought to have known before, 

And which though I learned it dreaming, 
I hope to forget no more. 

" So I sit alone with my conscience 

In the place where the years increase, 
And I try to fathom the future 

In the land where time will cease ; 
And I know of the future judgment, 

How dreadful soe'er it be, 
That to sit alone with my conscience 

Will be judgment enough for me." 



THE RETURN OF OUR LORD. 

In 2 Timothy iii, 16, Paul declares : " All Scripture is 
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, 
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 
ness ;" but there are sor^e people who tell us when we take 
up prophecy that it is all very well to be believed, but that 
there is no use in trying to understand it : these future 
events are things that the Church doesn't agree about, 
and it is better to let them alone, and deal only with those 
prophecies which have already been fulfilled. But Paul 
doesn't talk that way ; he says : " All Scripture is . . 
profitable for doctrine." If these people are right, he ought 
to have said : " Some Scripture is profitable ; but you can't 
understand the prophecies, so you had better let them 
alone." If God didn't mean to have us study the prophe- 
cies he wouldn't have put them into the Bible. Some of 
them are fulfilled, and he is at work fulfilling the rest, so 
that if we do not see them all completed in this life, we 
shall in the world to come. 

I don't want to teach any thing to-day dogmatically, on 



^His Sermons. 509 

my own authority ; but to my mind this precious doctrine 
— for such I must call it — of the return of the Lord to this 
earth is taught in the New Testament as clearly as any 
other doctrine in it ; yet I was in the Church fifteen or 
sixteen years before I ever heard a sermon on it. There 
is hardly any Church that doesn't make a great deal of 
baptism, but the New Testament only speaks about bap- 
tism thirteen times, while it speaks of the return of our 
Lord fifty times ; and yet the Church has had very little 
to say about it. 

Now I can see a reason for this : the devil does not 
want us to see this truth, for nothing would wake up the 
Church so much. The moment a man takes hold of the 
truth that Jesus Christ is coming back again to receive 
his friends to himself, this world loses its hold upon him ; 
gas-stocks, and water-stocks, and stocks in banks and in 
horse railroads, are of very much less consequence to him 
then. His heart is free, and he looks for the blessed ap- 
pearing of his Lord, who at his coming will take him into 
his blessed kingdom. 

In 2 Peter i, 20, we read : " No prophecy of the Script- 
ure is of any private interpretation." Some people say, 
" O yes, the prophecies are all well enough for the priests 
and doctors, but not for the rank and file of the Church." 
But Peter says, " The prophecy came not in old time by 
the will of man : but holy men of God spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost," and those men are the very 
ones who tell us of the return of our Lord. Look at Dan- 
iel ii, 45, where he tells us the meaning of that stone which 
the king saw in his dream that was cut out of the mount- 
ain without hands, and that brake in pieces the iron, the 



510 Dwight L. Moody: 

brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold. " The dream is 
certain, and the interpretation thereof sure," says Daniel. 
Now we have seen the fulfillment of that prophecy, all 
but the closing part of it. The kingdoms of Babylon, and 
Medo-Persia, and Greece, and Rome, have all been broken 
in pieces, and now it only remains for this Stone cut out 
of the mountain without hands to smite the image and 
break it in pieces till it becomes like the dust of the sum- 
mer threshing-floor, and for this Stone to become a great 
mountain and fill the whole earth. 

But how will he come ? We are told how he will come. 
When those disciples stood looking up to heaven at the 
time of his ascension, there appeared two angels, who said 
unto them, (Acts i, n,) "Ye men of Galilee, why stand 
ye gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus, which is 
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like man- 
ner as ye have seen him go into heaven." How did he 
go up ? He took his flesh and bones up with him. " Look 
at me ; handle me ; give me something to eat ; a spirit 
has not flesh and bones as ye see me have ; I am the iden- 
tical one whom they crucified and laid in the grave. Now 
I am risen from the dead, and am going up to heaven." 

An angel was sent to announce his birth of the Virgin ; 
angels sang of his advent in Bethlehem ; an angel told the 
women of his resurrection ; and two angels told the dis- 
ciples of his coming again. It is the same kind of tes- 
timony in all these cases. 

I don't know why people shouldn't like to study the Bible, 
and find out all about this precious doctrine of our Lord's 
return. Some have gone beyond prophecy, and tried to 
tell the very day he would come. Perhaps that is one 



His Sermons. 511 

reason why people don't believe this doctrine. That he is 
coming, we know ; but just when he will come we don't 
know. Matthew xxiv, 36, settles that. The ang ils don't 
know, and Christ says that even he doesn't know; that 
is something the Father keeps to himself. 

If Christ had said, " I will not come back for two thou- 
sand years, none of his disciples would have begun to 
watch for him ; but it is the proper attitude of a Christian 
to be always looking for his Lord's return. So God does 
not tell us when he is to come, but Christ tells us to 
watch. In this same chapter we find that he is to come 
unexpectedly and suddenly. In the twenty-seventh verse 
we have these words : " For as the lightning cometh out 
of the east, and shineth even unto the west ; so shall also 
the coming of the Son of man be." And again in the 
forty-fourth verse : " Therefore be ye also ready ; for in 
such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." 
Some people say that means death ; but the word of God 
doesn't say it means death. Death is our enemy, but our 
Lord hath the keys of death ; he has conquered death, 
hell, and the grave, and at any moment he may come to 
set us free from death, and destroy our last enemy for us ; 
so the proper state for a believer in Christ is waiting and 
watching for his Lord's return. 

.In the last chapter of John there is a text that seems to 
settle this matter. Peter asks the question about John, 
" Lord, and what shall this man do ? Jesus said unto him, 
If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? 
Follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among 
the brethren, that that disciple should not die." They 
didn't think that the coming of the Lord meant death ; 



512 Dwight L. Moody: 

there was a great difference between these two things in 
their minds. Christ is the prince of life ; there is no 
death where he is ; death flees at his coming ; dead bodies 
sprang to life when he touched them or spoke to them. 
His coming is not death : he is the resurrection and the 
life, and when he sets up his kingdom there is to be no 
death, but life for evermore. 

There is another mistake, you will find, if you read your 
Bibles carefully. Some people think that at the coming of 
Christ every thing is to be all done up in a few minutes ; 
but I do noi so understand it. The first thing he is to do 
is to take his Church out of the world. He calls the 
Church his bride, and he says he is going to prepare a 
place for her. " We may judge," says one, " what a glori- 
ous place it will be from the length of time he is in pre- 
paring it ; and when the place is ready he will come and 
take the Church to himself." 

Toward the close of the fourth chapter of First Thes- 
salonians Paul says : " If we believe that Jesus died and 
rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God 
bring with him. . . . We which are alive and remain unto 
the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are 
asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first : 
then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the 
air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, 
comfort one another with these words." That is the com- 
fort of the Church. There was a time when I used to 
mourn that I should not be alive in the millennium ; but 



His Sermons. 513 

now I expect to be in the millennium. Dean Alford says 
—almost every body bows to him in the matter of inter- 
pretation — that he must insist that this coming of Christ 
to take his Church to himself in the clouds is not the same 
event as his coming to judge the world at the last day. 
The deliverance of the Church is one thing, judgment is 
another. Now, I can't find any place in the Bible where 
it tells me to wait for signs of the coming of the mil- 
lennium, as the return of the Jews, and such like ; but it 
tells me to look for the coming of the Lord ; to watch 
for it ; to be ready at midnight to meet him, like those 
five wise virgins. The trump of God may be sounded, 
for any thing we know, before I finish this sermon ; at any 
rate we are told that he will come as a thief in the night, 
and at an hour when many look not for him. 

Some of you may shake your heads and say, " O, well, 
that is too deep for the most of us ; such things ought not 
to be said before these young converts ; only the very 
wisest characters, such as the ministers and the professors 
in theological seminaries, can understand them." But, 
my friends, you find that Paul wrote about these things to 
those young converts among the Thessalonians, and he 
tells them to comfort one another with these words. Here 
in the first chapter of First Thessalonians Paul says, "Ye 
turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God ; 
and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from 
the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath 
to come." To wait for his Son ; that is the true attitude 
of every child of God. If he is doing that he is ready ioi 
the duties of life, ready for God's work ; aye, that makes 
him feel that he is just ready to begin to work for God 



5H Dwight L. Moody: 

Then in the second chapter and nineteenth verse he says : 
" For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing ? Are 
not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at 
his coming ? " And again, in the third chapter, at the 
thirteenth verse, " To the end that he may establish your 
hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, 
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." 
Still again, in the fifth chapter and second verse, " For ye 
yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so 
cometh as a thief in the night." . He has something to say 
about this same thing in every chapter ; indeed, I have 
thought this Epistle to the Thessalonians might be called 
the Gospel of Christ's Coming Again. 

There are three great facts foretold in the word of God i 
First, that Christ should come ; that has been fulfilled. 
Second, that the Holy Ghost should come ; that was ful- 
filled at Pentecost, and the Church is able to testify to it 
by its experience of his saving grace. Third, the return 
of our Lord again from heaven : for this we are told to 
watch and wait " till he come." Look at that account of 
the last hours of Christ with his disciples. What does 
Christ say to them ? If I go away I will send death after 
you to bring you to me ? Not at all. He says, M I will 
come again and receive you unto myself." If my wife were 
in a foreign country, and I had a beautiful mansion all 
ready for her, she would a good deal rather I should come 
and take her unto it than to have me send some one else 
to bring her. So the Church is the Lamb's wife ; he has 
prepared a mansion for his bride, and he promises for our 
joy and comfort that he will come himself and take us to 
the place he has been all this while preparing. 



His Sermons. 515 

My friends, it is perfectly safe to take the word of God 
just as we find it. If he tells us to watch, then watch. 
If he tells us to pray, then pray. If he tells us he will 
come again, wait for him. Let the Church bow to the 
word of God, rather than be trying to find out how these 
things can be. " Behold, I come quickly," said Christ. 
" Even so ; come, Lord Jesus," should be the prayer of the 
Church. 

Take the account of the words of Christ at the commun- 
ion table. It seems to me the devil has covered up the 
most precious thing about it. " For as often as ye eat this 
bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death 
till he come!' Most people seem to think that the Lord's 
table is the place for self-examination and repentance, and 
making good resolutions. Not at all ; you spoil it that 
way ; it is to show forth the Lord's death ; and we are to 
keep it up till he comes. 

Some people say, " I believe Christ will come on the 
other side of the millennium." Where do you get it ? I 
can't find it. The word of God nowhere tells me to watch 
and wait for the coming of the millennium, but for the 
coming of the Lord. I don't find any place where God 
says the world is to grow better and better, and that Christ 
is to have a spiritual reign on earth of a thousand years. 
I find that the earth is to grow worse and worse, and that 
at length there is going to be a separation. " Two women 
grinding at a mill ; one taken and the other left ; two men 
in one bed, one taken and the other left." The Church is 
to be translated out of the world ; and of this we have 
two examples already, two representatives, as we might say^ 
in Christ's kingdom, of what is to be done for all his true 



516 Dwight L. Moody: 

believers. Enoch is the representative of the first dis- 
pensation, Elijah of the second, and as the representative 
of the third dispensation we have the Saviour himself, who 
is entered into the heavens for us, and become the first- 
fruits of them that slept. We are not to wait for the great 
white-throne judgment, but the glorified Church is sit on 
the throne with Christ, and help to judge the world. 

Now, some of you think this is a new and strange doc- 
trine, and that they who preach it are speckled birds ; but 
let me tell you that most of the spiritual men in the pulpits 
of Great Britain are firm in this faith. Spurgeon preaches 
it. I have heard Newman Hall say that he knew no 
reason why Christ might not come before he got through 
with his sermon. But in certain wealthy and fashionable 
Churches, where they have the form of godliness but deny 
the power thereof — just the state of things which Paul de- 
clares shall be in the last days — this doctrine is not 
preached or believed. They don't want sinners to cry 
out in their meeting, " What must I do to be saved?" 
They want intellectual preachers, who will cultivate their 
taste ; brilliant preachers, who will please their imagina- 
tion ; but they don't want the preaching that has in it the 
power of the Holy Ghost. We live in the day of shams 
in religion. The Church is cold and formal ; may God 
wake us up! And I know of no better way to do it than 
to set the Church to looking for the return of our Lord. 

Some people say, " O, you will discourage the young 
converts if you preach that doctrine." Well, my friends, 
that hasn't been my experience. I have felt like working 
three times as hard ever since I came to understand that 
my Lord was coming back again. I look on this world as 



His Sermons. 517 

a wrecked vessel. God has given me a life-boat, and said 
to me. " Moody, save all you can." God will come in judg- 
ment and burn up this world, but the children of God 
don't belong to this world ; they are in it, but not of it, 
like a ship in the water. This world is getting darker and 
darker ; its ruin is coming nearer and nearer ; if you have 
any friends on this wreck unsaved you had better lose no 
time in getting them off. But some one will say, " Do you, 
then, make the grace of God a failure ? " No ; grace is 
not a failure, but man is. The antediluvian world was a 
failure ; the Jewish world was a failure ; man has been a 
failure every- where, when he has had his own way and 
been left to himself. Christ will save his Church, but he 
will save them finally by taking them out of the world. 
Now, don't take my word for it ; look this doctrine up in 
your Bibles, and, if you find it there, bow down to it and 
receive it as the word of God. Take Matthew xxiv, 50 : 
"The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he look- 
eth not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and 
shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with 
the hypocrites : there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth." Take 2 Peter iii, 3, 5 : "There shall come in the 
last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and say- 
ing, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the 
fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the 
beginning of the creation." Go out on the stieets of 
Chicago and ask men about the return of our Lord, and 
that is just what they would say : " Ah, yes, the Lord de- 
layeth his coming ! " 

"Behold, 1 come quickly," said Christ to John, and the 
last prayer in the Bible is, " Even so, come Lord Jesus.' 



5 X & Dwight L. Moody: 

Were the early Christians disappointed then ? No ; no 
man is disappointed who obeys the voice of God. The 
world waited for the first coming of the Lord — waited for 
four thousand years, and then he came. He was here only 
thirty-three years, and then he went away ; but he left us 
a promise that he would come again ; and as the world 
watched and waited for his first coming and did not watch 
in vain, so now to them who wait for his appearing shall 
he appear a second time unto salvation. 

Now let the question go round, "Am I ready to meet 
the Lord if he comes to-night ? " " Be ye also ready, for in 
such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." 

In the third verse of the fourteenth chapter of John 
Christ tells his disciples : " And if I go and prepare a 
place for you I will come again, and receive you unto my- 
self." I like that text. What we want, and what the 
Church wants, is to be looking for Christ's coming again. 
We are nowhere told in the word of God to be looking 
for death, but we are told to be watching for the coming 
of the Son of man. 

Some people think we are to look for the restoration of 
the Jews, and the millennium, before the second coming 
of Christ, but the Bible don't say so. There is no com- 
mand in the Bible for looking after the coming of the 
Jews, or the millennium, but we are commanded to watch, 
n for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man com- 
eth," and it is perfectly safe to do what the word of God 
commands us to do. If the Church, instead of looking 
for the Jews to be restored were only watching and wait- 
ing for the Lord to return, as ne says he will, there would 
be a great deal more life and power among its members. 



His Sermons. 519 

There is another thought I want to call your attention 
to, and that is, Christ will bring all our friends with him 
when he comes. All who have died in the Lord are to 
be with him when he comes in the clouds of heaven. 
" Blessed and holy is he *iat hath part in the first resur- 
rection : on such the second death hath no power, but 
they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign 
with him a thousand years." Rev. xx, 6. " But the rest 
of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were 
finished. This is the first resurrection." Verse 5. That 
looks as if the Church w Q re to have a thousand years with 
Christ before the final judgment, when Satan shall be cast 
out, and there shall be new heavens and a new earth, 
whereir dwelleth righteousness. 

Now I want to give you some texts to study at home : 

When we eat the Lord's supper, we show forth his 
death until he come. 1 Cor. xi, 26. 

We are using our talents, until he come. Luke xix, 13. 

We are fighting the good fight of faith, until he come. 

1 Tim. vi, 12-14. 

We are enduring tribulation, until he come. 2 Thess. i, 7. 

We are to be patient, until he come. James v, 8. 

We wait for the crown of righteousness, until he come. 

2 Tim. iv, 8. 

We wait for the crown of glory, until he come, 1 Pete* 
v, 4, 

We wait for re-union with departed friends, until he 
come. 1 Thess. iv, 13-18. 

We wait for Satan to be bound, until he come. Rev. 
xx, 3. 

"Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" 



It. 

SERMONS TO CHRISTIAN WORKERS. 



PREPARATION FOR WORK 



(*£ 



GETTING READY FOR REVIVAL. 
pTL HAVE been all the morning studying the twenty- 
's ninth and thirtieth chapters of the Second Book of 
Chronicles, for it seemed to me that it was just the thing 
for us at this meeting. 

There was King Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, the son 
of David. He was, I think, the wickedest king that ever 
sat on the throne of Israel : built altars to false gods, set 
up idols, and even sacrificed his own children to them ; 
but when Hezekiah came to the throne there was just 
such a time as we want to see in Chicago. The Bible 
says that in the first month of his reign he opened the 
temple, which had been so badly abused that it took 
sixteen days to clean it out, and to get it ready for the 
worship of God. That's what's the matter with a good 
many of your Chicago churches. They have been filled 
with all manner of worldly rubbish. We want to clean 
them out. We have got to clean out all the Fairs, and 
Bazaars, and Lyceums, and then the God of Israel will 

[520] 



His Sermons. 521 

come down to work among us. But some of you will 
say, " We have a debt, and we have to take every possi- 
ble means to pay expenses." But let me tell you, you 
are pulling at the wrong end of the rope. Just clear out 
all the worldly folly out of your Churches, and get God 
to come and give you a revival — that will sweep away 
the Church debt faster than any thing else. 

The last verse of this twenty-ninth chapter tells us that 
Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people that God had pre- 
pared, for the thing was done suddenly. Some of you 
are getting impatient, and saying, " Here is the fourth 
day of these revival meetings, and you have not opened 
your inquiry rooms and begun to try to save sinners." 
Well, the reason is, we are not ready. When we are 
ready, when we have had the temple of our Lord 
cleansed, God can do more with us in a day than he 
can in a month if we are not ready. 

There was another thing in the way of that Jerusalem 
revival, the priests had not sanctified themselves. Just 
so it is with us. The ministers are not ready any more 
than other people. 

I think you have been losing ground in Chicago. 
Sixteen years ago you didn't have your theaters open on 
Sunday, and the people didn't read Sunday newspapers. 
There has been a great letting down among the Christians 
of Chicago. God has been sending trouble on you, as 
he did on Israel in the days of that wicked king, Ahaz. 
First there was the war. Well, we learned tc pray 
during the war, and a good many people said, A* 
soon as the war is over we shall have a great revival 
of religion. But there were so many of you who got 
35 



522 Dwight L. Moody: 

rich and proud that the Lord had to send the tire, and 
then presently he sent the panic, and this city, so won- 
derfully favored of God, has also been sorely chastised. 

In the ninth verse Hezekiah tells the people that it is 
on account of their sins that their sons and daughters 
are gone into captivity. How many fathers and mothers 
in Chicago are mourning over their sons and daughters 
who have been taken captive by sin ? Turn unto the 
Lord and sanctify yourselves, and God will bring your 
sons and daughters back again, and save them. [Hearty 
amens.] 

WORK. 

I want to speak to you this morning about work. 
Faith is the work of the mind, and work is the out- 
ward sign of faith. Some people talk about dead faith ; 
but if faith is dead it ought to be buried, and so got 
out of the way. If it is dead it is not the faith of the 
Gospel, the faith which saves the soul. A true faith 
must work. 

There are some people who are trying to get along 
and serve God without doing any work ; but they are 
having a very hard time of it. They are of no use to any 
body, and they must have a great contempt for them- 
selves ; they may possibly be saved, as Job says, by the 
skin of their teeth ; they may manage to squeeze into 
heaven, but they will not have an abundant entrance. 

In the fifteenth chapter of John, verses four and five, 
Christ says, " Abide in me, and I in you : ... He that 
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth 
much fruit." A good apple-tree cannot help bringing 
forth apples ; it does not have to try to do it. So it if 



His Sermons. 523 

with those who abide in Christ ; they continually bring- 
forth fruit. Now, abiding does not mean three or four 
weeks of special service, but three hundred and sixty- 
five days in a year of work for Christ. 

I hear people saying, " What shall I do now, these 
meetings are about to close ? I am afraid I shall go back 
to my old lukewarm condition." What you want is to 
abide in Christ, and then you will never go back. If this 
spirit of revival ever goes out of me I want to die right 
away ; it seems to me that life would not be worth hav- 
ing without it. In the primitive days we read that there 
were added unto the Church daily such as should be 
saved, and so it ought to be now. Let me give you a text 
that will help you about this matter. It is in 2 Tim- 
othy, third chapter and fifteenth verse : " And that from 
a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are 
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith 
which is in Christ Jesus." 

If you are going to abide in Christ, you must know 
something about him, who he is, and what he is; study 
his word, and find out what he has said, for in the next 
verse we find, " All Scripture is given by inspiration of 
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correc- 
tion, for instruction in righteousness : that the man of 
God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works." 

Now, along with this, take the twenty-second verse of 
the first chapter of James : " But be ye doers of the 
word, and not hearers only." There has been no lack 
of hearers in our morning meetings ; attentive hearers, 
too. I ha ,r e not seen many of you asleep. Now what 



524 Dwight L. Moody: 

power there would be in the Church if there were as 
many doers as hearers of the word ! 

But I have a serious charge to make against you. You 
come to the meetings steadily, and listen well, and as 
soon as the sermon is over nine out of every ten of you 
get your hats, and gather up your shawls, and start for 
home as soon as ever you can, without lifting a finger to 
help any one into the kingdom of God. You have been 
in the Church ten, fifteen, twenty, perhaps forty years; 
but when I ask some of you to speak to that inquirer 
who sits weeping at your side, you say — 

" O ! dear, no, Mr. Moody, I can't do it ; I don't know 
how ; I haven't the ability." 

Now, I think you have been hearers long enough , It 
is time for you to go to work ; if you have listened 
as you ought, you can work. You say, " I have not the 
strength ; I have not the wisdom ; I have not the abil- 
ity." Very well ; God has all these things, and if you 
ask him for them he will give them to you for his work. 

Mr. Spurgeon was sending out some men from his 
college, and in reply to one of them who complained of 
his weakness, he said, " Yes, I know you are weak, but 
there are a good many of you." Now if we could get 
all the weak ones in the kingdom of Christ at work for 
him the result would be beyond reckoning, there are so 
many of them. 

Moses once went to Pharaoh and said : " If you don't 
let the people go I will bring up frogs upon you." 

" Frogs ! " says Pharaoh ; " do you think I am afraid 
of those little things?" But when they came Pharaoh 
had enough of them. There were frogs in the parlor 



His Sermons. 525 

and frogs in the bedroom, frogs jumping upon the dining- 
table and into the beds, frogs in the kneading-troughs, 
so that you could not make a loaf of bread without a 
frog in the middle of it. Nothing but frogs, but there 
were so many of them ! In one respect I wish that be- 
lievers were like the frogs of Egypt ; that is, that they 
should go every-where. 

If you do as well as you hear you will be all right ; 
but the hearer and not the doer of the word, says James 
in this same chapter, " is like unto a man beholding his 
natural face in a glass : for he beholdeth himself, and 
goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner 
of man he was." While the man who is " not a forgetful 
hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed 
in his deed." 

Now take the first verse of the third chapter of Titus : 
" Put them in mind to be . . . ready to every good 
work." If these ministers had every one of them mem- 
bers ready to every good work, what a power each 
Church would be ! If you are not ready, get ready. 
Have you done nothing but try to save your own soul? 
What do you suppose God converted you for? If it 
had only been to save yourself, he would have taken 
you out of the world at once. 

In the eighth verse of this chapter Titus tells those 
who have believed to be careful to maintain good works. 
Some people bring the charge against us that we preach 
all the time, Believe, believe ; but if we have believed 
in Christ and partaken of his spirit we shall be careful to 
maintain good works. We cannot help working then. 
I want to say to those young converts, maintain the 



526 Dwight L. Moody : 

Church. One of them was saying the other day that he 
could get along without joining the Church, that Mr. 
Moody did not belong to any Church. Now I want to 
say that the first thing I did after I was converted was 
to try to get into the Church. They would not have me, 
because they thought I was not converted ; but I tried 
again and again, till I got in. Don't stand outside of 
the Church and throw stones at it ; if it is cold, go in and 
warm it up. 

Help the Sunday-school. Go and pick up children, and 
bring them in and teach them. Help the Tract Soci- 
ety ; encourage the Bible-readers ; let the men of wealth 
send around their money to help in every good work. 

I used to think that if I ever should live to see the 
day when people should come to me to ask what they 
should do to be saved, I should be ready to say, with 
Simeon of old, " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant de- 
part in peace." But now that I have seen it, I want, 
also, to see men looking around for a chance to invest 
money for the Lord. They will get better dividends in 
that way than from any other investments they can make 
for themselves. If you see any thing that is doing good 
to a perishing world, that is one of the things to be 
maintained. 

Some people are like a bundle of shavings ; set them 
on fire, and they make a great blaze, but after a little 
there is no fire, no ashes, no any thing. They go around 
and work a year in one Sunday-school, and a year in 
another, but never hold on anywhere until they have 
gained an influence and become a power. Ten thousand 
such Christians are not worth one steady, faithful worker, 



His Sermons. 527 

who takes hold, and holds on year after year, and never 
lets go until his mission is accomplished. I want no 
mere revival Christians, no mere Sunday Christians, but 
Christians who will hold right on. The man that does 
one thing well and keeps right along at it is a terrible 
man. Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due 
season we shall reap if we faint not. 

There is one more thing I want to notice, and that is, 
be sure that your motive is right. In Colossians iii, T7, 
Paul says : "And whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do 
all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God 
and the Father by him." It will not do to work in the 
name of the Methodist Church or the Presbyterian 
Church, or to build up any denomination ; when you 
have got through it amounts to nothing; but if you do it 
in the name of Christ there is power and value in it. I 
was once attending the International Convention of the 
Young Men's Christian Association, at Detroit, where I 
heard Judge Olds, from Columbus, relate his experience, 
which I shall never forget. When the war broke out he 
took some interest in the soldiers, but when his only 
son left him and went into the army he became very 
much interested, and gave a great deal of time, days and 
weeks together, to the soldiers who passed through 
Columbus. After a while he thought it was taking too 
much time from his business, and resolved to give his 
time to that work. He went down to his office one 
morning, when he had an important case coming on, and 
pretty soon he saw a poor boy in blue coming in at the 
door. People had got in the habit of sending soldiers to 
Judge Olds, because he was always so kind to them. 



528 Dwight L. Moody: 

The judge went on writing without noticing the soldier 
until he pulled out a dirty piece of paper from his pocket 
and laid it on the desk. The judge glanced at it, and 
saw that it was in the handwriting of his son. Then he 
seized it, and read : — 

"This young man belongs to my company; he is sick, 
and is going home ; if he comes to you, do every thing 
you can for him for Charley's sake." When the judge 
read that he forgot all about his resolutions, left his im- 
portant case, ran out and got a carriage, and took the 
poor fellow to his house, put him into Charley's room, 
nursed him and took care of him until he was well 
enough to start on his journey again, and then took him 
to the train, put him in a comfortable place, and sent 
him on to his mother. " I did that for the sake of my 
son ? " said the judge ; " for Charley's sake ; but what do 
you suppose our Father in heaven would do for the 
sake of his Son for those who are in trouble and need 
his help?" 

Now, in closing, I would say, let us be united. These 
meetings have seemed to me to be a foretaste of heaven, 
because all these ministers have been working together 
with one mind ; and now that the meetings are closing, 
be sure to keep out jealousy. If God uses some one else 
more than he uses you, rejoice at it. Rejoice that Jesus 
is glorified. When I was down South I heard of a good 
many battles which we lost through jealousy among the 
generals ; and the same was true on the other side. But 
when Grant got into the Wilderness in front of Richmond, 
and all the generals advised retreat after the first day's 
repulse, he took the matter into his own hand, and sent 



His Sermons. 529 

around an orderly with this command : " Advance in 
solid column on the enemy at daylight." 

That, my friends, is just what we want. Advance in 
solid column, every one of us in line, doing his best for 
Christ's sake ; and by and by we will sit down in the 
presence of the King and talk over our struggles and re- 
joice in our victories. 

After one of his terrible battles Napoleon caused a 
medal to be struck and given to the soldiers who had 
fought so nobly and with such success. On one side was 
a description of the battle, and on the other the words, 
" I was there." Let us be in the thickest of the fight, 
and by and by we shall look back from glory to this 
battle, and that battle ; and, like the old soldiers, proud 
of their medals, we shall say, "I was there/' Let it be 
said of us, as was said of an eminent minister of Scotland 
at his death : " He has fallen with the trumpet of God 
in his hand and victory upon his lips." 

" TO EVERY MAN HIS WORK." 
At one of his Sunday morning meetings for Christian 
workers, Mr. Moody read from the twenty-fifth chapter 
of Matthew the portion containing the parable of the 
talents until he came to these words : — 
" I know thee, that thou art a hard man." 
" That fellow told an awful lie. He said he knew the 
Lord was a hard man, and that shows he didn't know 
him at all ; any body who knows the Lord knows that 
his yoke is easy and his burden light." 

A second Scripture lesson was read, from the twenty- 
fifth chapter of Exodus, being an account of the offerings 



530 Dwight L. Moody: 

of the people for the tabernacle and the ark of the cove- 
nant ; the reader dwelling especially on the verse, " Of 
every man that giveth it willingly, with his heart, ye shall 
take my offering." " If a man could not give gold or silver 
let him bring on his brass, and if he had no brass let him 
bring a badger-skin — those were plenty and cheap ; 
if he had no fine linen, let him bring a little goat's hair; 
surely every man could bring as. much as that, and the 
little gifts were just as acceptable to God as the big 
ones, if they were only offered willingly." 

After the Scripture lesson another hymn was sung, 
while the doors were opened to let in the late comers 
out of the rain, and then Mr. Moody commenced the ad- 
dress. 

The text was Mark xiii, 34 : " To every man his 
work." 

There are quite a number of leaves coming out of my 
Bible at the places where I have preached from it the 
most. The third chapter of John is loose, and so is this 
thirteenth of Mark, " To every man his work." It does 
not say a work, or some work, but his work. The Al- 
mighty has laid a plan for every man's life, and marked 
out his work for him from all eternity. Every one of 
you has his own appointed task, and no minister, or 
deacon, or elder, or steward, can possibly do it for you. 

A great many Christians are weak: and sickly, and all 
the time getting into Doubting Castle, because they don't 
have this text thoroughly fixed in their hearts. I some- 
times think it would be a good plan to watch the records 
of the Churches, and when any body wants to join, to 
have the minister ask him, " What do you want to come 



His Sermons. 531 

in for ? Is it to get out of trouble, and to sleep and take 
it easy ? If that is the case we don't want you ; we have 
plenty such members already." What a pity that there 
should be so many silent partners, or, as the English call 
it, sleeping partners, in this business of carrying on the 
salvation of souls. What a misfortune it would be if 
your child should not grow any for ten or fifteen years ; 
but that is just the case with a great many of the Lord's 
children here in Chicago. I know some of them who 
are praying the same old prayers to-day that they were 
praying in 1856, when I first came out here ; they haven't 
grown a bit in all that time. The reason of it is because 
they have not done their work. 

You think it-is a great misfortune if a child is dumb ; 
But God has a great many dumb children ; they can talk 
politics, or business, or gossip fast enough ; but they tell 
their pastor not to call on them to pray or speak in 
meeting ; they could not think of doing such a thing — 
have no gift of speech at all. About nine tenths of the 
people are dwarfs, and cripples, and deaf and dumb, and 
a good many of them are almost dead. 

You know the old country fashion of holding meetings 
in the school-house at early candle-light. Well, when it 
begins to grow dark a man comes and brings his candle, 
goes into the dark room, and strikes a light. That one 
tallow-candle can't do much toward lighting up the 
school-house; but pretty soon another man comes and 
brings his candle, and then another, and another, and 
by the time they have a hundred candles lighted, the 
place is pretty well lit up. Now, my friends, you cannot 
all of you be light-houses, but every one of you ought to 



532 Dwight L. Moody: 

be at least a tallow-candle. I have heard people say, 
" O, I have only one talent ; if I had ten talents, like 
somebody else, I might be of some use ; " and that is 
nothing but pride. The text says, To every man his 
work. You don't need talents to do somebody else's 
work, and every one of you has talent enough for his own 
work. I haven't any talent for singing; Mr. Sankey 
hasn't a very great talent for preaching. God has ap- 
pointed to each of us his own work, and to every other 
man, woman, and child in the whole world. 

Somebody invited me to go down to the dog market 
in London one day. He said they were going to have 
some preaching down there among those rough people. 
The streets were crowded with the roughest-looking set 
I ever saw. Almost every body had something to sell : 
a pup, or a fighting cock, or something in that line, which 
he wanted to sell to get liquor. The preachers came and 
tried to be heard, but the people paid no attention to 
them. By and by some one said, " Moody, you are from 
America ; get up and tell them who you are, and they 
will listen to you." 

So they did for a while, for those people think that 
America is the next thing to Paradise. But as soon as 
I began to tell them about a better place than America, 
and invite them all to go to heaven, they hurried away 
from me and went on with their dog-fighting and their 
cock-fighting. At last there came a rough man who had 
been converted right out from among that rough crowd ; 
and when he got up on the chair and began to speak 
all his old mates crowded around to hear him tell the 
story of the cross. God had given him a work to do 



His Sermons. 533 

among those lost sinners which he had not given to any 
of the rest of us. There are plenty of people who would 
take things from you that they wouldn't take from the 
minister. 

There was a man at the Washington Market, in Phila- 
delphia, who was converted in our meetings there, and 
after that he used to look up his friends and neighbors, 
and bring them into the meetings, go with them into the 
inquiry rooms, and read the Bible and pray with them, 
one after another, till they found Christ, and then he 
would go and look up somebody else. After we got 
through I said to him, " I wish you would bring me a 
list of those people," for I knew he had kept one ; and 
he brought me a paper with fifty-nine names and ad- 
dresses on it of persons whom he had that winter led to 
the Saviour. There is a kind of work which every one 
of you can do. 

There is another lesson I want you to learn, namely : 
God will give us just as many talents as we make good 
use of, and if we use one talent well he will give us two : 
if we make good use of five he will give us ten. Don't 
you remember the Master asking the disciples what they 
had to feed the multitude with ? They said five loaves 
and a few fishes. " It is enough," said the Master ; 
" bring them to me." And then I can seem to see one 
of the disciples, Andrew, perhaps, taking one of the loaves, 
after the Master had blessed it, to go out and feed the 
people. May be he did not have very much faith, and so 
broke off a little piece to give to the first man, thinking 
to make the bread hold out ; but there was no less after 
he had broken off the little piece, so he breaks off a big- 



534 Dwight L. Moody: 

ger one, and it does not seem to reduce the size of the 
loaf any, and so his faith gets larger, and he goes on 
breaking off big pieces, giving the people as much as 
they need. One of the Scotch brethren said he had no 
doubt but every man in the whole camp of Israel believed 
that God could use him to go out and fight against Go- 
liatJ , but David was the only man among them who be- 
lieved that God would do it. What we want is to believe 
that God will use us ; that he actually gives us a work to 
do for him, a work that is our own, and which if not 
done by us will never be done at all ; and then let us 
take hold of the work feeling perfectly sure that we can 
do it, with God's help. What a mighty work of grace 
there would be going on among us if there were two 
thousand or three thousand Christians watching for souls 
to lead to Christ ! 

Now I am going to ask you this question : How many 
of you here will promise the Lord to select some one 
person among your acquaintance, and make an honest 
effort this week to bring him to Christ ? All of you 
who will do that, rise and stand on your feet while we 
pray. 

Nearly half the congregation responded by rising. 

HINDERANCES. 

" Jesus said, Take ye away the stone." 

I haven't any doubt that -nearly all this congregation 
are looking for a blessing. If you are not, you ought to 
be, and if there is not a great blessing on these meet- 
ings it will be our own fault. 

God is always ready to bless. I know there are some 



His Sermons. 535 

people who say, " We must wait God's time ; there is a 
set time to favor Zion ;" but I tell you, my friends, the 
set time to favor Zion is when we are ready. God will 
do his work if we will, only do ours. Whenever the 
dead are raised there must almost always be somebody 
to roll away the stone. 

Some one might say, " Why can't God roll it away 
himself?" 

Well, so he could, but that isn't his way. He might 
send down an angel to roll away the stone, but he does 
not ; that is a part of the work that man can do, and 
man must do it before God will do his. 

Many people wonder why God does not answer their 
prayers. Why doesn't he save my profligate son ? Why 
doesn't he bless my drunken husband ? God delights to 
raise the dead ; he delights to save drunkards, and great 
sinners of every other sort. I have seen it. I have lived 
among such works of saving grace for the last two years. 
I have seen the grace of God raise a drunkard out of 
his grave of sin, put new life into him, take the appetite 
for strong drink away from him, and make him a new, 
clean man, soul and body. God can do these things, 
but man has something to do first. There are some 
stones to be taken away. 

We are not ready to advance yet ; there must be a 
casting down before there is a raising up. " If we regard 
iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us," much 
less will he answer us. 

Some people wonder that there are not more conver- 
sions. I wonder there are so many. I wonder how God 
can convert so many sinners with such Christians as he 



536 Dwight L. Moody: 

has to work with. Let those who are anxious about the 
salvation of their sons and husbands ask themselves, 
" What sort of a Christian am I ? What is my private 
life? What do my family think of me? Have they any 
confidence in my piety?" 

I tell you, my friends, there's no use of your going to 
talk to your family or your neighbors about Christ unless 
you are saved yourself — not a bit of use. What would 
be the use of a man who had the small-pox going around 
among his neighbors inquiring after their health ? They 
would say, " Get cured yourself before you come to look 
after us." 

" Lazarus, come forth ! " 

Now, I want to call your attention to three stones- 
mountains we might almost call them, they are so large 
— which it is needful for us to roll out of the way. 

First — Unbelief. If I were to ask any of you, Do you 
believe God can come and do a great work of saving 
souls here in Chicago this season ? you would, perhaps, 
say, " Yes, I believe he can." Well, my friends, I have 
been right there for fifteen years. I believed God could 
revive his work and save thousands of sinners, but I 
didn't believe he would. Now, roll away that stone. 
Let us take a step in advance ; let us stop saying we be- 
lieve God can save, and let us begin to say we believe 
he is going to do it. 

If you were to go down into the saloons and ask the 
drunkards there if they believe God can save them, the 
most of them would say, " Yes, I s'pose he can." Well, 
I say more. I say I believe he is going to do it. 

When we went down from Edinburgh to Glasgow the 



His Sermons. 537 

skeptics said : " Ah, this revival is all very well for 
women and children, but it doesn't get hold of the 
men." So we prayed that God would give us men in 
Glasgow ; and when we came to look over the registered 
list of three thousand three hundred converts we found 
among them the names of one thousand seven hundred 
men. 

Then the skeptics said, " Ah, these were all young 
men, people who were good enough already." Then we 
prayed that God would save bad men. The next place 
we went to the very first man converted was a gambler, 
the next a drunkard, the next a thief, and so the work 
went on among thieves, and gamblers, and harlots, the 
vilest of people, and our prayer was answered again. 
* " Said I not unto thee, If thou wouldest believe thou 
shouldest see the salvation of God ? " Unbelief is the 
mother of all sin. Away with it ! God is ready and 
willing to* save bad sinners, if you will only go down to 
them and take them by the hand and lead them to 
Christ. 

Second. The second stone to be rolled away is Preju- 
dice. How many of you say, " I am prejudiced against 
revivals ? " and yet you believe in revivals in trade, re- 
vivals in manufactures, revivals in politics — all sorts of 
revivals except revivals of religion ! When any body 
begins to talk about revival meetings you say, as Na- 
thanael said to Philip, " Can any good thing come out of 
Nazareth?" But Philip was a sensible man; he didn't 
begin to argue % with Nathanael, but told him to " come 
and see." So we say to you, Come and see. Come to 

the meetings with us for a week, and wait upon God, and 
36 



538 Dwight L. Moody: 

see if he does not pour us out a blessing, that there shall 
not be room enough to receive it. 

O, but you say, " I have known bad things in revivals." 

So have I. I could tell you more than you know 
about bad things that have happened in revivals. The 
devil is always busy counterfeiting what is good. 

" Some young converts turn out bad." 

Well, some people start to be Democrats, and they 
turn out bad. People who were Republicans sometimes 
turn out bad. Some men go into business and fail, but 
is that a reason why nobody should ever go into busi- 
ness again ? 

The Bible talks of revivals. Take your Bible and read 
about that revival at Pentecost. Revivals are just as 
scriptural as the doctrine of justification by faith, or re- 
generation, or redemption. 

Third. The third stone to be got out of the way is the 
miserable sectarian spirit. Thank God, it is beginning 
to die out ; but the walls between the different denom- 
inations used to be so high that you could hardly see 
over. We used to have what we called union meetings, 
and a Methodist would get up and say, " I am a Meth- 
odist, but I condescend to meet with these Baptists and 
Presbyterians;" and the Baptist would get up and say, 
11 I am a Baptist ; I don't want you to think I am any 
thing else ; but I condescend to meet with the rest of 
you ;" and so on. There was condescension enough 
about these meetings to kill them. 

What we want is to come up as one man against the 
devil, with a united front, and we shafl have victory in 
the name of the Lord. The world used to look at the 



His Sermons. 539 

denominations and say, " See how they quarrel." But a 
brighter day begins to dawn. This meeting is a type of 
heaven. We are not here to pick holes in one another's 
theology. The only question we ask about one another 
is, What is he trying to do ? 

Christ was no partisan ; if he had been, his party would 
have stood by him ; if he had taken sides with the Phar- 
isees, the Pharisees would have stood by him ; if he had 
claimed to be a Sadducee, the Sadducees would have 
made him their leader. But no ; Christ loved all men, 
and so should we. If I had a drop of sectarian blood in 
my-veins I would let it out. 

There was no sectarian feeling on the day of Pente- 
cost ; they were all of one accord ; all in one place. 
When Israel was down in the wilderness the Lord chose 
out seventy elders, and they prophesied in the camp ; 
but there were two, named Eldad and Medad, who proph- 
esied also, and Joshua advised Moses to stop them be- 
cause they did not belong to the seventy. But Moses 
knew better than Joshua. " No," said Moses, " let them 
prophesy if they can. I wish every body in the camp 
could prophesy." 

One day some of the disciples found somebody casting 
out devils in the name of Christ, and they tried to 
stop him because he was not one of the twelve. " No," 
said Christ, " let him alone ; if he is casting out devils in 
my name that is all right ; he must be a friend of mine." 

We are not doing this work for the sake of this creed 
or that ' reed, but for the sake of Christ. I remember 
the story ol the missionary, Mrs. Comstock, who was 
obliged to send her children back to her own country 



54o Dwight L. Moody: 

because they could not be educated in India. She could 
not go ; her work was pressing, and she must stay. So 
she took her children on board the vessel, and, just as 
she was about to go away and leave them, she knelt 
down upon the deck, and prayed this prayer: — 

" Lord Jesus, I do this for thee." Let this be our 
spirit as we enter upon this work. No self-seeking, 
but every thing for the Lord Jesus. 

I want to ask these ministers and these laymen, What 
is your motive ? Are you working for the glory of God, 
or for your own glory ? Are you trying to exalt the 
name of Christ, or your own names? 

The greatest enemy of the unrenewed heart is pride. 
So the greatest enemy of the consecrated man is spiritual 
pride. The thirty-first verse of the ninth chapter of 
Second Corinthians reads thus : " Whether, therefore, 
ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory 
of God." Ah, my friends, if we would keep self out of 
the way, how quick God would come and bless us ! He 
says he will not give his glory to the sons of men ; they 
are nothing but channels ; God is the fountain. You do 
not say that a gas-pipe gives light ; it is only the channel 
through which the light-making vapor flows. So we are 
nothing but the medium by which God sends out the 
light of his Spirit and the word of his truth. 

A true Christian, like a tree, must grow down as well 
as up, if he is going to stand long. He must grow down 
in humility as well as up in profession. There are a 
great many people who, like Peter, are willing to be 
upon the Mount of Transfiguration with Christ, who for-, 
sake him when he comes to Gethsemane. 



His Sermons. 541 

There is hardly one of the Christian graces but what 
Satan can counterfeit better than humility. In the fifty- 
seventh chapter of Isaiah, at the fifteenth verse, we have 
the words : " For thus saith the high and lofty One that 
inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy : I dwell in the 
high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite 
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and 
to revive the heart of the contrite ones." So you see 
there are two places where God dwells. In the heights 
of eternal glory and in the heart of the humble believer. 
The chief trouble with Peter was his self-confidence ; he 
boasted that he was willing to lay down his life for his 
Master's sake, and one of the other gospels makes him say, 
" Though all men should forsake thee, yet will not I." 
But we know how it was when he came to be tempted. 

There are a good many men who are under the power 
of strong drink, who say, " I can get rid of my appetite 
by myself," but when they come to put their own 
strength to the test they find that it is perfect weakness. 
Some of the strongest men in the Bible have fallen at 
the point of their greatest strength. The only time that 
Edinburgh Castle was ever taken was when the enemy 
climbed up on the back side, which was thought to be so 
steep as not to need any guard. 

Abraham was the father of the faithful, yet he so far 
failed in his trust in God that he actually denied his 
own wife for fear of trouble on her account. There was 
no man so meek as Moses, yet he lost Canaan by losing 
his temper, and saying, " Have we got to bring water 
out of the rock for rebels like you?" Elijah was noted 
for his courage; yet once when that woman, Jezebel, 



542 Dwight L. Moody: 

wrote him a letter, it almost scared him out of his wits, 
so that he went and sat down under a juniper-tree and 
wished himself dead. Peter was one of the three favorite 
disciples who had seen Christ's first miracle and were 
with him on the Mount of Transfiguration, yet he is the 
first to deny his Master, and swear he did not know 
whc he was. 

The devil aims very high. When he wanted some- 
body to testify against Jesus Christ at his trial, he chose 
the high-priest, the highest ecclesiastical officer in the 
world. When he wanted somebody to betray him, he 
went right in among the twelve, and chose the treas- 
urer for his purpose ; and then he chooses Peter and be- 
sets him so as to make him turn his back on the Lord 
when he was most in need of the presence and sympathy 
of his friends. 

Let us not think of saving ourselves with such ene- 
mies in the world and such weakness in us ; the only 
hope we have is in the power and grace of Jesus Christ. 

ENTHUSIASM. 
There are many good people who are very much afraid 
of enthusiasm, but you will find that there is not much 
to be done in Christ's kingdom, or in any other king- 
dom, except by men and women who are full of enthu- 
siasm. It is this kind of men who succeed in business 
or in politics. Just now there are a great many people 
in this country full of enthusiasm over the question, 
"Who is to be the next President?" and if this is so, 
why don't we get enthusiastic over the kingdom of Jesus 
Christ? 



His Sermons. 543 

I remember over there in the North Side Sunday- 
school we used to have some teachers who were running 
over with enthusiasm. It seemed to tingle in their fin- 
gers, and it made their scholars feel it when they shook 
hands with them. Those teachers had large, attentive 
classes. There were others who used to come in and sit 
down without saying a word to any body. They did 
not even speak to their scholars except to ask them 
questions of the lesson, and when their scholars saw 
that the teachers did not care, of course they did not 
care either, and so, one after another, they dropped out 
of the class. These teachers used to come to me and 
say, " Mr. Moody, can't you send me some more schol- 
ars ?" but there was not any use in sending scholars to 
them. You might as well have so many lumps of wood 
in Sunday-school classes. 

I have great admiration for the Italian patriot, Gari- 
baldi, not so much on account of his judgment as on 
account of his enthusiasm. I always read every thing I 
can find about him, because it fires me up. There, in 
1867, when he was going toward Rome, he was captured 
and thrown into prison. And when he got inside of the 
prison walls he wrote a proclamation to his soldiers, " If 
fifty Garibaldis are thrown into prison, let Rome be 
free." There are some generals whose names were worth 
thousands of men on the battle-field. I have read of an 
officer whose general ordered him to charge and take a 
battery. " Let me shake your conquering hand, and I 
can do it," was the reply. 

There is a story of a young general who in the ninth 
century came up with a small force against a king who 



544 Dwight L. Moody: 

had a large army. The king sent a message to say that 
it was madness for him to think of fighting against such 
odds, and offered to allow him to surrender on honorable 
terms. The young general read the communication, and 
then called up one of his men. He handed him a dag- 
ger, saying, " Plunge that into your heart !" The soldier 
did it and fell dead at the general's feet. Then he called 
another and said to him, " Jump over that precipice," 
and over he went. " Now," said the general, turning to 
the messenger, " tell your king that I have five hundred 
such men, and tell him also that in forty-eight hours I 
will have him chained among my dogs." 

The messenger returned, and when it came to be known 
what kind of men were coming against them the whole 
army was demoralized, and, sure enough, in forty-eight 
hours from that time the young general had that king 
chained among his dogs. 

At one of the sessions of the General Assembly of the 
Church of Scotland old Dr. Duff, who had been a mis- 
sionary in India for twenty-five years, and had come 
back with a shattered constitution to die in his native 
land, was appointed to speak on missions. There was 
money in the missionary treasury, but none were willing 
to go. For an hour and a half the old man plead for 
India, and then he Tainted away, and was carried out of 
the hall. After a while he came to, and asked where he 
was. They told him that he had fainted away, and bade 
him be quiet. " O, yes," said the old man, " I was plead- 
ing for India. Take me back and let me finish my 
speech." The physician in charge said he dare not do 
it for fear it might be the end of him. " I shall die if I 



His Sermons. 545 

don't," said the old hero ; and so they took him back. 
When he was brought in the General Assembly rose to 
their feet, and when they placed him on the platform he 
finished his speech after this manner : — 

" Is it true that those fathers and mothers have no 
more sons to preach the Gospel to the heathen ? When 
Queen Victoria calls for men to go out and fight for her, 
she does not call in vain ; but if there are no young men 
to go, let the chairman announce the fact, and, old and 
feeble as I am, I will go back to the banks of the Ganges, 
and die among those people. I will let them know that 
there is one old Scotchman who can die for them if he 
can do nothing more." 

The effect was wonderful, and soon letters began to 
come in from men who were willing to go to preach the 
Gospel in India. 

It may not be your duty to go on a foreign mission, 
but God, in his providence, is bringing all sorts of people 
to Chicago, and you can stay right here and be a foreign 
missionary for Christ. 

A. minister was telling me the other day that he got 
into a working-men's car, and began to tell them about 
these meetings, and afterward talked to them about their 
souls. " I was a wonder to myself," said he ; " six 
months ago I would not have thought of doing such a 
thing, for fear people would think I was mad." 

I tell you, my friends, that is just what we want. 
There is need of a great many more mad men in Chi- 
cago. A man is not worth very much for the cause of 
Christ till the world begins to think he is mad. The 
world thought Christ was mad. Agrippa thought Paul 



546 Dwight L. Moody : 

was mad, but he could say, as one man said when they 
told him he was a lunatic, " I have a good keeper on 
the way, and a good asylum at the end." 

I wish every one of you, old and young, men and 
women, would just try to lead one soul to Christ this 
week, and what a glorious work we should see ! Don't 
say, " I have no talent for such work." 

Just ask the Lord, " What wilt thou have me to do?" 
and he will furnish you the work, and give you the quali- 
fication also. 

Some one has said that there are a great many people 
who are all the time crying out — 

" O, my leanness ! O, my leanness ! " but if they were 
only honest they would cry out — 
" O, my laziness ! O, my laziness ! " 
People may laugh at you, but that will do you no 
harm. 

I heard of a young convert once who was beginning 
to preach Christ to a little company of people on a street 
corner, when an infidel came along, and said, 

''Young man, you ought to be ashamed ot yourself." 
" So I am," he answered ; " but I am not ashamed of 
the Gospel of Christ." 

Did you ever notice the five weak things which God 
uses to carry on his work. Here they are, in the 
First Epistle to the Corinthians, the first chapter and 
the. twenty-seventh verse : — 

l< But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world 
to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak 
things of the world to confound the things which are 
mighty ; and base things of the world, and things which 



His Sermons. 547 

are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are 
not, to bring to naught things that are : that no flesh 
should glory in his presence." 

Who would have thought of setting that Bedford 
tinker to write a book which should be next to the 
Bible ? 

I sometimes hear people say, " O, if that man were 
only converted, what an influence he would have ! " Not 
at all. There are great men, as the world goes, who 
sneak into the kingdom of God, and are never heard of 
afterward, while some poor, humble, ignorant men come 
to be great powers for good. God uses " the things 
which are not to bring to naught the things that are." 
When he wanted to shake Scotland out of its formality 
and heresy, he did not call a noble to do it. He called 
John Knox, a man so full of holy enthusiasm that he 
prayed, " Give me Scotland, or I die." 

When God wanted to shake Germany, as a mother 
would shake her naughty child, he called Martin Luther, 
a poor, obscure monk. 

When he wanted to arouse England he called the 
Wesleys and Whitefield — some unknown young men, 
and when the churches were closed against their preach- 
ing they preached in grave-yards and coal-pits and 
prisons. 

Look at the Prophet Elisha. I see old Elijah meeting 
him out there in the field behind those twelve yoke of 
oxen. If we had been asked to pick out a successor to 
that great prophet we would have chosen some professor 
in a theological seminary, or some president in a college, 
or some man with a " D.D." or an " LL.D." to the end 



548 Dwight L. Moody: 

of his name. But Elijah, by the will of God, goes to 
that young farmer, and says, " My work is almost done, 
and you are to be my successor ; " and just before he is 
taken up in the Lord's chariot, he says, " Now, Elisha, if 
there is any thing you want, just ask it." 

" Let me have a double portion of the spirit that is in 
you," says Elisha. That was a great thing to ask. It 
was a mighty spirit that dwelt in Elijah. He prayed 
that it might not rain, and the heavens were shut up for 
three years. But Elijah says to him, " If thou see me 
when I go up it shall be so." Then he puts Elisha to 
the test. He takes him to one place and another, and 
says, " Stay here while I go yonder ; wait here for me." 
But Elisha says, " No." He is bound to be with the 
prophet when he goes up, so that he may have that 
double portion of his spirit. 

At length one of the Lord's chariots comes down, and 
Elijah steps into it, and up he goes. But Elisha sees 
him as he ascends ; seizes his mantle that falls to the 
ground ; smites the river Jordan, and it opens before 
him, and then the sons of the prophets exclaim, " The 
spirit of Elijah is upon Elisha." 

My friends, the spirit of Elijah and Elisha will come 
upon you if you seek it with all your hearts. Just say 
to the Lord, " Here am I ; send me/' and if you will all 
do that there will be a mighty work of grace, not only in 
Chicago, but all over the the North-west. 

FAITH. 

I want to call your attention to a dry subject. Some 
of you will say, " O dear, if I knew Mr. Moody was go- 



'His Sermons. 549 

ing to preach on faith I wouldn't have come to-night.' 
Well, my friends, if it is an old and dry subject, it is also 
a very important one, for none of you can ever enter the 
kingdom of God without it. 

The next thing to do is to find out the true definition 
of the word. Let us look for it in the eleventh chapter 
of Hebrews, and at the first verse : " Now, faith is the 
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not 
seen." Then the chapter goes on to tell us about Abel, 
and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham ; by faith they did 
this, and by faith they did that. Sixteen times that form 
of words occurs — " By faith " they did so and so. And 
you will find that the successful men in the Bible and 
out of it are always men of strong faith. 

There are three things that go to make up faith : 
knowledge, assent, laying hold. A great many people 
get as far as knowledge and the assent. They say, " O 
yes, I believe ; I assent," but they don't lay hold of the 
word of God, and hold on to it for dear life. Faith is the 
basis of all possible society. You just let men lose faith 
in one another, and in the banks and business houses, 
and there would be a terrible state of things. Well, the 
faith with which a man believes in God is just the same 
kind of faith as that with which he believes in his neigh- 
bor. The only difference is in the object. Some people 
make a mistake right here. They think that saving faith 
is something that God is going to send unto them from 
heaven. Faith is an outward look, and not an inward 
look. It looks away from self to Christ ; it looks over 
all mountains, and up to God himself. It hears God 
speak, and it says, "Amen ! amen ! " 



55° Dwight L. Moody : 

In the seventeenth chapter of Jeremiah, at the fifth 
verse, the Lord says : " Cursed be the man that trusteth 
in man, and who maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart 
departeth from the Lord." But a little further along we 
read : " Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord." 
There is no dependence to be put in man. You dare not 
even trust yourself. Your own heart has deceived you a 
great many times ; but if you put your trust in the living 
God you may live in peace and joy all the while. There 
is no use in trusting in princes or ministers or Churches 
or creeds. They often disappoint you. God never does. 

This eleventh chapter of Hebrews tells us about the 
men who believed ; but just go on to the twelfth, and you 
find that, notwithstanding we are compassed about with 
so great a cloud of witnesses, we are to win the race set 
before us not looking unto Abel, or unto Abraham, or 
unto Moses, but " looking unto Jesus, the author and 
finisher of our faith." 

There is another mistake that is quite common. Peo- 
ple say that it don't make any difference what a man be- 
lieves if he is only sincere in it. Why, there was that 
man at the balloon ascension who caught hold of the 
rope just as the balloon was cut loose, and he was swept 
away to destruction. He believed he was right in hold- 
ing on to the rope, but it did not save him from being 
dashed to pieces. I was talking to a man the other day, 
trying to find out what his faith was. 

" I believe the same as my Church does," said he. 

" Well, what does your Church believe ?" 

" O, the same as I do," and that was all he knew 
about it. 



His Sermons. 551 

He was sincere enough, but he didn't have any knowl- 
edge of what he ought to believe. Now the question 
comes up, How are we to get this faith ? Well, I will 
tell you. You want, first of all, to get acquainted with 
God, and the way to do that is to read this book, in which 
he gives an account of himself. If some good man were 
to make one hundred promises to be fulfilled in ten years, 
and if nine years were already past, and ninety of the 
promises had been fulfilled to the letter, and no change 
had occurred in our relations to each other, wouldn't I 
be right in expecting him to fulfill the other ten ? Well, 
that is just the way with God. He has fulfilled a great 
many promises, and hasn't ever broken any, and that is 
reason enough why we should believe him when he tells 
us any thing. Some people say that faith in God is 
blind, is taking a leap in the dark. I deny it ; we are 
acquainted with him ; I have been acquainted with him 
twenty years, and I know he always keeps his word. 

When I was down in Mobile, before I went to Europe, 
a gentleman where I stayed was playing with his two 
boys by putting them up on a post eight or ten feet high, 
and letting them jump into his arms. Then he put up a 
bigger boy than either of the others, but he was afraid to 
jump, and cried to be taken down. " What does it 
mean?" said I. The two little boys jumped as if they 
liked it, and the big one was afraid. " Ah !" said the 
man, " the big one was not my boy." So it is, my 
friends, with all of us. God's children, who know him 
and have proved his love and faithfulness, are not afraid 
to leap into the arms of his promises ; but the boys that 
are not his boys cry and worry and fret whenever they 



552 Dwight L. Moody: 

think they are in danger. What they want is to get ac- 
quainted with the Lord, and then they will not be afraid 
to trust him for any thing. 

A man once came to me saying he wanted to find the 
best life of Christ that had ever been written. So I told 
him to read that life of him which was written by his 
old friend, John. John knew him better than any one 
else ; and in every chapter of his Gospel but two he has 
something about believing in him. " Faith cometh by 
hearing," says Paul to the Romans, and hearing cometh 
by the word of God. That is where you are to get your 
faith. God says it, and whatever he says is certain to 
be true. Men and devils have been trying to make out 
that God is a liar ; but it is no use. The Scripture can- 
not be broken. Therefore the thing to do is to take 
God at his word. 

It is said that one day, as Napoleon I. was reviewing 
some troops, his horse took fright, and the emperor lost 
the reins. A soldier, seeing his danger, threw himself 
before the runaway horse, and, at the risk of his life, 
caught the reins, and gave them into the emperor's hand, 
who was very grateful for the service, and, bowing his 
thanks, he said : " I make you captain of my body- 
guard." The soldier did not go back into the ranks, but, 
taking the emperor at his word, at once took his place 
it the head of the body-guard. The officer in command 
ordered him back. 

" No," said he, " I am captain of the Guard." 

" Who said it ?" 

" He said it," pointing to the emperor, and that settled 
the matter. 



His Sermons. 553 

So let us do with the promises of God. He said it, and 
that settles the matter for us. I have heard some people 
say they are so constituted that they can't believe the 
Bible. Suppose a brother here were to invite me home to 
dinner with him to-morrow, and I were to hesitate, and 
say I was so constituted that I couldn't believe he wanted 
me to come ! That is only another way of telling God 
he is a liar. Don't talk about your unbelief as a consti- 
tutional misfortune ; it is a fatal, damning sin. 

Suppose you know some beggar who had been beg- 
ging at a street-corner for years, and some day you 
should see him with a new suit of clothes on, and all 
fixed up like a gentleman. You salute him and say, 
" Beggar, how is this ?" 

" I aint a beggar any more," he replies. 

"What! How is this?" 

" Well, a man came along and gave me $10,000, and 
I've got it safe in the bank ; so I am not begging any 
more." 

Then you begin to doubt and ask him how he got the 
money, and he says, " Why, I just reached out my hand, 
and he gave me the money." 

" Well, but I am afraid there was something wrong in 
the way you held out your hand." 

"Never mind," says the man, "that don't make any 
difference ; I've got the money." 

So, my friends, never mind your feelings and the way 
you come to Christ. Any path is good enough if it only 
brings you to Christ. 

Who will come to Christ to-night ? Who will set to 

his seal that the word of God is true ? 
37 



554 Dwight L. Moody: 

trust. 

I want to call your attention this afternoon to the 
word " trust," and to prove from the Scripture that this 
is all the soul has got to do to be saved — simply to trust 
Him. The very middle verse in the Bible tells us, " It 
is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in 
man ; it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confi- 
dence in princes." The word " trust " in the Old Tes- 
tament is the same as the word " believe " in the New. 
A great many say, " What do you mean when you say, 
' Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ ?' ' We mean to trust 
him for salvation, for strength, for every thing. He says 
he will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed 
on him. The great trouble with inquirers is, that their 
minds are stayed on themselves. They sit looking at 
themselves, and don't get any strength, any light, any 
victory, and they never w^ll till they get outside of them- 
selves. We haven't got the power to save ourselves. If 
we had, God would never have come into this world. If 
you haven't perfect peace, it is because your mind is 
stayed on yourself instead of on himself. All business 
would be suspended in Chicago in forty-eight hours if it 
wasn't for trust. Only, instead of putting our trust in 
men or in princes, we are to put it in God, and he will 
give us perfect peace. Psalm lxii, 8, tells us, " Trust in 
him at all times ; pour out your heart before him : God 
is a refuge for us." We are to trust him when we don't 
see what he is going to do. We are to trust him in the 
dark — when we don't know what will be the result. It 
may be midnight darkness, but what he wants is to trust 



His Sermons. 555 

him. If you trust your doctor, whom you have had 
for twenty -five years, and your child is sick, and he says 
there is no danger, you believe him and rest easy. If 
you have a dismal case in court, and your lawyer never 
lost a case, and he says he will carry it through, you be- 
lieve him. Christ never lost a case. Commit your case 
to him, and he will take you through. 

How to trust him. We are told to trust him with all 
the heart. Then all darkness will disappear, and the light 
will come. God hates half heartedness. A great many 
don't get light because they don't come with all the 
heart. A story is told of Alexander the Great, that he 
got a note stating that his favorite doctor was going to 
poison him. At the time the note came this doctor was 
in the room with him. Alexander read the note, and 
his confidence in the doctor was such that he took up 
that very drug mentioned in the letter and drank it right 
down, while he handed the letter to his doctor. Let us 
have that confidence in God. God never betrayed his 
children. Men wont trust a stranger. The reason infi- 
dels don't trust God is because he is a stranger to them. 
The more a man knows God the more he trusts him. 
His faith never wavers. It is these people that are very 
little acquainted with God that have so little faith. 
When I was in Philadelphia a man came down from Al- 
toona to spend the Sabbath, as he afterward told me, 
and find Christ. He went to the meetings during the 
day, and when I found him at night he looked as if he 
had lost all his friends. I asked him what was the 
trouble, and he said he hadn't found Christ. 

"Well," I said, "he has been after you for years," 



556 Dwight L. Moody: 

"Well," said he, " I can't find him." 

" There's one thing you can do," said I, " you can 
trust him." 

" Well," said he, " supposin' I do ; any body can trust 
him." 

" Well, he'll save you," said I. 

" By just trusting him ? " 

"Yes; nothing more, nothing less. The word says 
so." 

" Well, I think that's too easy." 

" That's the trouble," said I. " You want to do some- 
thing great, while all you have to do is to just commit 
your soul to God and trust him." And he finally did so, 
and was converted. The result of trust is peace, quiet, 
gentleness. We get peace, happiness, mercy, and joy. 

But I can imagine some one saying, " How about your 
feelings?" Let the feelings take care of themselves. I 
may meet a man on the street who is very happy; any 
body can see it, and I say to him, "What makes you so 
happy?" He says, "I don't know. I just feel happy* 
that's all." A good many people want to be happy be- 
fore they have got any thing to make them happy. You 
can't make yourself feel ; at least, I can't. If I could, I 
would feel good all the time. Salvation don't depend 
on our feeling. It depends on the word of God. All 
God requires you to do is to put your trust in him and 
look to him for salvation. Put no confidence in the 
flesh. Let your efforts all cease here to-day, and say, 
" From this hour, by the grace of God, I put all my 
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I trust him to take 
me." Commence to-day. I was talking to a man to- 



His Sermons. 557 

day up by the Second Church. He said he had been 
trying to save himself, and he told me the same old story 
of lopping off sin after sin. Don't you see, if a man 
could do that he don't need any Saviour at all? Christ 
lays the ax right at the root of the tree. It isn't cutting 
off the branches. It is a new tree. It is a new life; 
and the moment you come to him, and give up trying to 
work out your own salvation, then you have got it. 

Some might like to know why they don't get it. " The 
fear of man bringeth a snare." Men don't want to go 
into the kingdom of God as little children. People tell 
me they haven't got any pride ; O no, but yet it is in 
them, and coming out from the bottom of their feet to 
the roots of their hair. They say, " What would be said 
of a man of my position going into the inquiry room?" 
Pride doesn't belong only to the rich. It is born in us. 
People are convinced in their minds that they do need 
Christ, but they lack the moral courage to say so. O, 
may God give it to you to-day ! That is just the reason 
that keeps a great many away. They are afraid to take 
up their crosses and follow Christ. 

A great many people are writing me letters about the 
hard times, the scarcity of food, and the general hard 
times. Now, take my word, and put your trust in the 
widow's and the orphan's God. If you trust in the Re- 
lief Society or in the Churches you will be disappointed. 
God intends that you shall be. He intends to sweep 
every prop from under you, that you may come and 
trust in him. I know what it is to be a homeless boy, 
and I tell you the God of the widow and the orphan will 
stand by you if you put your trust in him. I remembci 



558 Dwight L. Moody: 

a case during the first year of our war. Business wasn't 
good. Our brothers and friends were off in the army. 
One day a soldier's wife on the North Side got tidings 
that her husband had been killed. A few hours after- 
ward the landlord came after the rent. She didn't know 
what to do, and she was weeping, when her little child 
came and said, 

" Mother, wont God hear prayer?" 

The mother said, " Yes," and that little one went into 
her room and prayed, and she said, '* O God, my father 
died in the army ; my mother's got no money, and the 
landlord is coming to turn us out of doors, and we will 
sit on the door-step and get cold and die. Wont you 
lend us a little house?" 

And God was true to his word. That mother for 
years has never paid any rent. God raised up funds to 
provide for that widow and her child. We can't afford 
not to trust him. If there is any one bowing under the 
rod, I say, Trust him in the dark ; say, " I will trust him 
any way." Lie right down and say, " Lord, I am trust- 
ing thee. I will trust thee to keep me. I will trust thee 
in spite of my treacherous heart. I will trust thee any 
way." My friends, when you do this, soul and body, the 
Lord will save you. 

LOVE. 

" Though I speak with the tongues of men and of 
angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding 
brass, or a tinkling cymbal." I Cor. xiii, I. 

I have not any doubt that a good many who belong to 
the Church have often wondered why they were not 



His Sermons. 559 

more useful. I have asked myself the same question a 
thousand times, but I think the answer is to be found in 
this thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. Every min- 
ister needs to read that chapter over at least once a 
week, in order to know how to preach. A man may 
have the eloquence of Demosthenes, but if he has 
not a heart full of love, his preaching wont do any 
good. 

I have known Churches to send away for some very 
eloquent minister, and when he came they would think 
they were sure to have a successful Church ; but some- 
how or other there would not be any conversions. 
What was the matter? You will find out by reading 
this thirteenth chapter. The man hadn't any love in 
his heart. He could speak with the tongues of men, but 
his heart was cold. Why, you might as well put a boy 
into the pulpit to beat a bass drum as to put a minister 
into it whose heart is not full of love. Such a man is 
nothing but sounding brass. I know some men who 
can dig wonderful things out of the prophecies. They 
understand all mysteries, and we, common people, sit at 
their feet and wonder at their knowledge. But after all 
they don't seem to be of any use in saving any body. 
What is the trouble ? Paul tells you what the matter is. 
" Though I understand all mysteries, and all knowledge 
. . . and have not charity, I am nothing. And though 
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and have not 
love, it profiteth me nothing." 

Here is a man who gives five hundred dollars to some 
relief society, and another who gives his check of a thou- 
sand dollars to help found a theological seminary, but if 



560 Dwight L. Moody: 

he does not do it for love God cannot see any merit in 
it. " And though I give my body to be burned, and 
have not love, it profiteth me nothing." 

I have no doubt there are some men who would be 
willing to give their bodies to be burned for the sake of 
something they believe in, but it is all in vain if they do 
not hold the principle in love. 

I am so tired of the misuse of that word " duty." A 
man gets up in a prayer-meeting and says he has not 
much to say — people find it out before he talks two 
minutes — but he feels it his " duty " to say something 
for the Lord, and help to fill up the time. What a 
nuisance ! 

A Sunday-school teacher takes a class because he feels 
it to be his " duty." He does not love his scholars, and 
his scholars very soon find it out. I have a poor old 
mother living on the banks of the Connecticut River, up 
among the mountains of New England, and for the past 
twenty years I have made it a point to go and see her 
every year. Now suppose I were to go home to her 
and say, " Well, mother, I remember how much you did 
for me when I was a little boy, and father was dead, and 
how hard you used to work to keep us all together, and 
now I feel it is my duty to come and see you once in 
awhile." I think the poor old lady would say, " My son, 
you need not come any more." 

A minister came up to me one day and said, " Moody, 
you are all wrong. You say people ought not to go to 
prayer-meetings from a sense of duty. If you talk that 
way you will empty my prayer-meeting." 

" Very well, empty it, then," said I. " A prayer- 



His Sermons. 561 

meeting is not worth much where people only go from 
a sense of duty." 

Still he insisted that I was wrong. So I said to him, 
" You are a married man, I suppose ; aint you ? " 

" Yes." 

" Well, suppose that to-morrow was your wife's birth- 
day, and you were to go and buy her a book for a birth- 
day present. You take it home to her, and say, ' This 
is your birthday ; here is a book for you. I felt it was 
my duty to make you a birthday present.' Do you 
suppose she would accept that book from you ? Not at 
all. She would say, ' Keep your old book. I don't 
want any birthday present made to me from a sense of 
duty." 

" Well," said the minister, " I don't know but what 
you are right after all." 

We read in this chapter that " charity thinketh no 
evil ;" still less does it speak any evil. If a young man 
professes to be converted, and begins to talk against 
his brethren, I know at once that his religion is a 
sham. 

In the fifth chapter of Galatians you may find out 
what are the evidences of real conversion. " The fruits 
of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 
ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." 

Love, you see, is put at the head of the list. If love 
is not the mainspring of our lives we may be sure we 
have not been born from above. Just take a look at 
that scene in the temple. There were the rich men 
giving five hundred or a thousand dollars apiece for the 
service of the Lord. That would look very well in a 



562 Dwight L. Moody: 

Jerusalem morning paper, if they had any papers in those 
days ; but there is a poor widow who gives two mites ; 
but she gives her heart with them, and when Jesus sees 
it he says, " That poor widow has given more than all 
these rich men put together." 

There is a text in the second chapter of Titus which 
has been too much overlooked. It is this : — 

" Sound in faith, in charity, in patience." 

If a man is not sound in faith we cut his head right 
off; we call an ecclesiastical council, and drive him out of 
the pulpit, or cast him out of the synagogue; but if he 
is unsound in love we let him go on sowing discord 
among brethren, and keeping the Church in a continual 
quarrel. It is very important to be sound in faith and 
patience, but it is still more important to be sound in 
love. If we cannot love according to the thirteenth 
chapter of First Corinthians, we are not where God can 
bless us or make any use of us. 

It does not take a very good man to love his friends. 
Any body can love them that love him, but grace is 
intended to make a man love his enemies. Love begets 
love, and hatred begets hatred. If any one speaks well 
of you you begin to feel kindly toward him, but if you 
hear that he has spoken evil of you it is very natural for 
you to feel a coldness toward him ; but love, which 
comes into a man's heart from God, will help him love 
his enemies. Love is the lever with which Christ lifts 
the world. He came down into the world because he 
loved it, and not because it loved him ; and it is just so 
with those who are his disciples. If we only love them 
who love us we are no better than any body else ; but if 



His Sermons. 563 

we are the true disciples of Christ we shall love them 
that hate us, also. 

Dr. Arnot, of Edinburgh, once pointed out to me a 
family in his congregation who, he said, were, all seven 
of them, to be received into his Church the next Sunday, 
and who had been won by a smile. 

" How is that?" said I. 

He answered, " I was passing a house, on my way to 
church one Sunday morning, where there was a little 
girl standing in the window. I looked at her with a 
smile on my face and passed on. The next Sunday the 
little girl was at the window again. So I smiled and 
bowed, and the little girl bowed in return. The next 
time there were some more children watching for me, 
and when the little girl saw me she clapped her hands, 
and bowed and smiled, and I took off my hat and bowed 
and smiled, too. The next Sunday there was a lady at 
the window with the children, and I didn't know just 
what to do, but I thought it would be quite safe to bow, 
and the lady bowed in return. Then, as I afterward 
found out, the lady said to her children, ' I think that 
man must be a minister; he has a book under his arm, 
and he has a happy-looking face.' (What a good thing 
it would be if you could always tell a minister by his 
happy-looking face !) And so she set the children to 
follow me. They came to my church and heard me 
preach, and after awhile they brought the whole fam- 
ily ; and now they are all members of my congregation, 
and are going to be members of the Church, and they 
were all brought to Christ just through the effect of a 
smile." 



564 Dwight L. Moody: 

People come to me sometimes to complain of then 
ministers, and I always say to them, " How many min- 
utes do you spend every day praying for your minister?" 
That spikes their guns about as quick as any thing. Peo- 
ple should love their ministers, and should pray for them 
a good deal, and always find a good deal of help from 
their preaching. 

Love is a great power. When your heart is all aglow 
with love ; when you are red-hot with the love of Christ, 
and feel willing to go down close beside some lost sinner 
for the sake of saving him, you are pretty sure to bring 
that soul to Christ. A poor preacher can preach well 
when his heart is all on fire with love. A Sunday-school 
teacher can teach well whose heart is full of love for his 
scholars. A Christian worker can work well who loves 
the Lord with all his heart. My friends, let us work for 
Christ, not from a sense of duty, but under the heavenly 
inspiration of love. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 



The Bible is a treasury of power, but the man who is 
full of himself makes but little use of it. He may use it 
as a book to get proof texts out of, though even then he 
thinks he might get along without it. Now, that, I be- 
lieve, is one reason why so many have but little success ; 
they know but little about the word of God. 

There are a good many people in the Church, who call 
themselves Christians, who take up the Bible, and wonder 
if it is all true. Yes, my friends, it is all true, from back 
to back. 

There was a colored man I heard of once, who had 
been converted, and some infidel got hold of him, and 
said to him, " The Bible is not true ; " but the colored 
man replied : " I was once a drunkard and blasphemer, 
but when I read that word of God I stopped swearing 
and drinking; so I guess the book must be true that 
would do this. A bad book could not make a bad man 
good." I think the colored man had the best of the 
argument. Let us take our stand on his platform. 

Another thing, let us not try to reason out every 

thing by bringing all God's revelations down to our own 

level. There are a great many things in the Bible that 

we cannot understand, and that is one of the proofs that 

the Bible is the word of God. 

[565] 



566 Dwight L. Moody: 

Some people say they are pretty well acquainted with 
the Bible, and. therefore, they don't read it, because it is 
old. They prefer to read the daily papers, under the notion 
that they get the news from the daily papers ; but I tell 
you the Bible is the only news-book in all the world ; 
why, it not only tells us what took place six thousand 
years ago, but what is going to take place in ages to 
come ! No newspaper can do that ; a newspaper may be 
able to tell you what happened yesterday, but you will 
have to go to the Bible to find out what is going to be 
hereafter. 

Now, let us take up the question again, How are we to 
study the Bible? and, first, I want to call your attention 
to some of the states of mind in which we should ap- 
proach this study. 

A great many people read the Bible as I used to be- 
fore I got converted, just to ease their consciences. I 
used to feel that it was my duty to read two chapters 
every day; so every morning I would jump out of bed 
and read my two chapters, and then put in a mark in the 
book to tell where I left off. 

Sometimes in traveling I have seen the head of the 
house take down the family Bible, and ask his wife where 
they left off reading the last time. Some people read 
the Bible so carelessly that if you were to ask them ten 
minutes after they had shut the book what they had 
been reading about they would be unable to tell you. 

Others read a chapter here at one time, and the next 
time a chapter there, scattered all around. They don't 
know any thing about the Bible ; they haven't the con- 
nection. 



His Sermons. 567 

This book is altogether different from other books. 
We cannot understand it by merely studying; we must 
read it, and re-read it, and pray to God to open our un- 
derstanding and give us the Holy Ghost to interpret it to 
us, and if we go about it in that way, setting our faces, 
as Jehoshaphat did, in prayer, to understand it, these 
blessed and heavenly truths will all come out plain be- 
fore us. 

It is important to study the Bible without any bias. I 
find that a great many people come to the Bible, saying, 
I believe such and such a thing, and that does not agree 
with this or that text of the Bible. 

Now, if we are going to make a study of the word of 
God, we must let the Spirit teach us, and we must be- 
lieve whatever he says. 

We want to study God's word in the clear light of 
Calvary, and if we can read it under the cross, we shall 
be sure to understand all the rest. 

When you come to the word of God, hunt for some- 
thing, just as men do who go to California, for the pur- 
pose of digging gold. 

If you want to get gold, you must dig for it ; just so, 
if you want to find the pure gold of the Bible you must 
search for it. The best truths are not found lying on the 
surface. 

When I was in Boston I went to Mr. Prang's chromo 
establishment, and asked him to show me the process by 
which he made pictures. So he took me to a stone that 
had a few tints on it — he was making a portrait of some 
public character — but when I looked at it I could not 
see any sign of a man's face at all ; then he showed me 



568 Dwight L. Moody: 

the next stone, and a young man who was at work on the 
same portrait took an impression and showed it to me, 
but I could see nothing at all like a man's face. So he 
went on and on to the eighth, the ninth, the tenth, and 
then I could begin to see a faint outline. Still we went 
on, until at the twentieth stone the picture looked a good 
deal like a man ; and at last, when we reached the twenty- 
eighth stone, and the workman took an impression of 
that, on a paper which had taken up all the other im 
pressions before, there was the perfect portrait. 

So we have to read the Bible. We take it up at first, 
and we don't see any thing in it ; then we read it over 
the second time, and still we see nothing wonderful ; but 
read it over to the twentieth time, and then you begin 
to get a little light. Dig down deep ; pray over the mat- 
ter ; read it twenty-four times, and you can see the out- 
lines of truth, and by and by, when you come to the 
twenty-eighth time or the thirtieth time, you will see 
Jesus Christ printed on every page. 

There are three books that every Christian ought to 
have. The first is a good Bible, with good large print. 
Some people object to large Bibles, because they cannot 
be carried in their pocket. Well, carry them under your 
arm, then. 

It was said of a certain man who used to walk five 
miles to church, that he preached a sermon five miles 
long, by carrying the Bible under his arm. 

Don't be ashamed to let people know that you are a 
Bible man. People come into a railway train and sit 
down and begin to play cards, without seeming to be 
ashamed of it. Why should you be ashamed to be seen 



His Sermons. 569 

with the Bible under your arm ? Read the word of God 
in public places. 

A great many people say that they cannot find time. 
Suppose you don't read quite so many daily newspapers. 
I don't believe there is a business man in Chicago but 
what can find an hour a day to spend in the study of the 
Bible, if he wants to. 

The next book after the Bible is " Cruden's Concord- 
ance," and then there is a little Scripture text-book which 
has been a great help to me, in which the various subjects 
treated of in the Bible are set down in alphabetical or- 
der, with references to various parts of the Bible. 

I hear some people saying that they believe in the 
New Testament, but don't believe in the Old Testament. 
This shows that they don't know any thing of either ; 
because the Old is a prophecy of the New, and the New 
Testament is an indorsement of the Old. 

Christ put his seal of approbation on a great many 
things in the Old Testament, and you will find Christ 
himself in the Old Testament as well as in the New. 
Some scientific men say they don't believe in the flood. 
Didn't the Son of God say, "As it was in the days of 
Noah, the flood came and took them all away," and 
wouldn't you rather take the testimony of Jesus Christ 
than the speculations of these scientific infidels? 

I have no sympathy with the men who go down into 
the ground after the dead carcasses to make them testify 
against the word of God. 

Jesus of Nazareth believed the flood, and I take my 

stand with him. 

Somebody says, " I don't believe the whale swallowed 
38 



S7° Dwight L. Moody: 

Jonah. The throat of a whale is not big enough to 
swallow a man." But the word of God says, " God 
prepared a fish to swallow Jonah." I heard of an old 
colored woman once who said God could prepare a man 
to swallow a whale, if he wanted to. You must not limit 
the power of the Lord God. 

Now, a good way to study the Bible is to take up a 
portion of it at a time, and study it over and over. It 
is better to spend six months on one gospel, or one 
epistle, or one prophecy, than to spend the same time 
on the whole Bible. When we have become masters of 
one part perhaps four or five others will be opened to us 
by means of it. Every book was written with a special 
object. The book of John was written to make us be- 
lieve that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and to see 
that by believing in him we might have eternal life. 

The blood of sacrifice is a scarlet line that runs all 
through the Bible. 

Take up the word "able," and find out what God is 
able to do. Take up the " overcomes " of Revelation, 
and go with them higher and higher till you come to 
the last one. " To him that overcometh will I grant to 
sit with me in my throne, as I also overcame and am set 
down with my Father in his throne." 

Study the nineteen personal interviews of Christ ; 
study the conversions ; study the blessings of the book 
of Revelation, the only book that opens with a blessing 
on the man that reads it. Some people say the Revela- 
tion is a sealed book, and there isn't much good in 
reading it. That is the devil who puts that notion into 
people's heads. The Revelation is the only book that 



His Sermons. 571 

tells about the downfall of Satan, and, of course, he don't 
want people to read it ; so he says, " O, this is very mys- 
terious ; you can't understand this ; read something else." 

Then study the seven "walks" of Ephesians, the 
walk of obedience, walk circumspectly, and finally the 
walk " not as other . Gentiles walk." Some of these 
women are afraid of being peculiar, but that is just what 
Christ wants of his people. He wants them to be differ- 
ent from the world, so that men can tell them by the 
love they bear to one another. 

Then look up the precious things of Peter — precious 
Christ, precious blood, precious faith, precious trial of 
faith. Also, the assurances, the things which we know, 
in the First Epistle of John, till you come to the last : 
" We know that when he shall appear we shall be like 
Him, for we shall see him as he is." 

Take up any one book, and n.sk the question, " What 
does this book teach ? what is the special reason why it 
was written ? " Study the personal characters mentioned 
in the Bible. Follow out the Christian attainments in 
Psalm xxiii, 2 ; Luke x, 39; Ephesians v, 14; Isaiah 
xl, 31 ; Hebrews xii, 1 ; Psalm xviii, 21 ; lying, sitting, 
standing, walking, running, leaping, till at last, with 
Isaiah, you " mount up on wings like the eagles." 

Again, it is a good thing to take up the Bible top- 
ically. I have been greatly blessed in taking up one 
word, and then by means of the "Concordance " hunting 
up every passage bearing on the same topic. Some time 
ago I took up the word " love," and spent about three 
weeks on it, and when I got through I was so full of love 
that I felt like loving every body. In court, if a lawyer 



572 Dwight L. Moody : 

wants to carry the jury, he gets every thing right on one 
line, and he piles up the testimony, and carries them by 
force. So the minister or the Sunday-school teacher 
ought to consider his class a jury, and to treat them as 
if he wanted to make them bring in a verdict on his side 
of the case. 

Then take the word Christ. I cannot tell you how 
blessed the study of that word has been to me. At first 
I used to linger about Sinai, but when I began to study 
Christ, after a while I got to Calvary. 

Then take the blood, that some people seem to be so 
much troubled about, and you will find that without the 
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. 

Then take up the Bible characters. Take King Saul, 
for instance, and find out how he failed, and you will 
find that there are hundreds of men in Chicago just like 
him. Study David, and find out the secret of his power. 
Look up the record of Daniel, and see why it was that 
he was a man so beloved of God. 

Then take the subject of revivals ; look through the 
Bible, and find the records of revivals there. They had 
a pretty good revival in the days of Nehemiah. I wish 
we had one like it in Chicago. We find in the eighth 
chapter of that book, " And Ezra the priest brought the 
law before the congregation, both men and women, and 
all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day 
of the seventh month : and he read therein before the 
street that was before the water gate, from the morning 
until the midday, before the men and the women, and 
those that could understand." No preaching, you ob- 
serve, but merely the reading of the word of God, half a 



His Sermons. 573 

day at a time. What we want is not some grand elo- 
quent essay about Christ or religion, but we want to 
have men tell us about Christ out of the law and the 
Gospel. I had a great deal rather have the " Thus saitb 
the Lord " than the biggest bundle of fine essays. 

" And the ears of the people were attentive to the 
books of the law." I can see the old men putting their 
hands up to their ears, so that they should not lose a word, 
and the people listening with their mouths open, like 
young robins with their mouths stretched for the food 
that the old bird brings them. That is what I call men 
and women hungering for the word of God. 

" And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And 
all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up 
their hands : and they bowed their heads, and wor- 
shiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. So 
they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, antf 
gave the sense, and caused them to understand the 
reading." That is about the style of preaching we want. 
We want our ministers to read distinctly, and cause the 
reading to be understood. That would be a very strange 
course to some of our preachers. You ask a great many 
persons if they understood the sermon, and they could 
not even tell you what the minister has been saying. 

" Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, 
and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for 
whom nothing is prepared : for this day is holy unto our 
Lord : neither be ye sorry ; for the joy of the Lord is 
your strength." Show me a Christian that is feeding 
upon the word of God day and night, and I will show 
you a man that is full of power. 



574 Dwight L. Moody: 

Now turn to the twentieth chapter of Jeremiah and 
the ninth verse. This blessed old prophet fed upon the 
word of God, and it was sweeter than the honey-comb 
to him. 

" Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor 
speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine 
heart as a burning fire shut up in my boner, and I was 
weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.' The word 
of God was in him like a fire ; and the word of the Lord 
is like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. 
There is not any thing like the hammer of the word of 
God to break the hard hearts of sinners. 

There is another verse in the fifteenth chapter of Jere- 
miah : " Thy words were found, and I did eat them ; and 
thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine 
heart : for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of 
hosts." Just think of that. Now a man must feed him- 
self before he can begin to feed others. You cannot get 
water out of a dry well. A man who is half-starved and 
lean himself does not feel very much like feeding other 
people. 

Another thought : I have been wonderfully helped by 
marking my Bible, to help me remember the good things 
I have heard in sermons and at other times. When I 
hear a good thing, I say to myself, That will be good for 
somebody else, so I just put a mark in my Bible, and 
that helps me use the thought when I want it. 

If a minister thought his sermon was going to be 
repeated over and over again, I am sure he would preach 
a good deal better for it. I think if we understood our 
Bibles better, and the ministers gave us more of it in 



His Sermons. 575 

their sermons, there would not be so many people car- 
ried away with false doctrine. 

Error has not such a stronghold in Scotland as it has 
in other Christian countries, and the reason of it is, that 
the people are educated in the word of God. The people 
there carry their Bibles to church. I think if a minister 
didn't preach according to the word of God there the 
people would soon find it out. I advise you to carry 
your Bibles to church with you, and if you hear a good 
sermon, take down the leading points. 

Here is something I marked down in my Bible ; from 
little things I heard spoken of once in a sermon. The 
speaker was referring to ants, and he showed that they 
toiled all summer, and laid up a store for the future. 
God's people, he said, were like the ant. So I said I 
would try to be like the ant, and prepare for the future. 
The next things he mentioned were the conies, who 
were so puny, and yet make their houses in the rocks. 
So I said, I will build upon the rock, so I shall be like 
the conies. The next things he mentioned were the 
locusts. The locusts live and travel in bands, yet they 
have no king over them. So with us here in this world ; 
we are without our King, but by and by our King will 
come back. So I said, I will be like the locust. Then 
came the spider. Well, said I to myself, I don't think I 
would like to be like the spider ; but when the minister 
pointed out that one of the habits of the spider is to 
suspend itself from the ceiling, and to keep up, off from 
the ground, I said to myself, Well, I think I will be like 
the spider after all, and so live above the world. 

Many people don't believe in assurance ; so that is a 



576 Dwight L. Moody: 

good topic to study. You will be surprised to find how 
much Assurance there is in the Bible. 

Then there is the Resurrection. Very few people seem 
to know much about the resurrection of the dead, but 
that is one of the principal things that the apostles used 
to preach. 

I have been interested in the " beholds " of the Bible. 
Run through the Scripture, and see how many things 
there are that God calls special attention to. 

Then take the " I wills " of Christ. " I will give you 
rest ; " "I will in no wise cast you out ; " " I will ; be 
thou clean ; " "I will confess him before my Father, 
which is in heaven ; " "I will make you fishers of men ; M 
" I will not leave you comfortless ; " "I will raise him up 
at the last day." And then this, which I think is the 
sweetest of all, " I will that they whom thou hast given 
me be with me where I am." 

Take up the titles of Christ, and see what he is to us, 
and I think that you will find that he is every thing you 
can possibly need. 

Then take the invitations of Christ, the " comes." 
" Come now, let us reason together ; " " If any man hear 
my voice, and open the door, I will come in ; " " Come 
and see ; " " Come and rest ; " " Come and dine ; " " Come 
to the marriage ; " " Come and inherit the kingdom pre- 
pared for you from the foundation of the world." 

My friends, we have a treasure in this Bible, and we 
never can use it all. We have instruction in every thing 
we need to know. We have an example in every line of 
duty ; a light for every darkness ; life in death ; victory 
over the grave ; the promise of our Lord's return ; the 



His Sermons. 



577 



assurance of everlasting glory. " Search the Scriptures ;' 
says Christ, " for in them ye think ye have eternal life 
and they are they which testify of me." 



I. 

BIBLE PORTRAITS. 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 

WE have for our text to-night the man Mr. Sankey has 
been singing about. The trouble with him was the same 
as with nine-tenths of the men in this city who are away 
from God to-night. He started out wrong. If any one had 
told the young man that he needed the grace of God to 
keep him when he was starting out to make his fortune he 
might have laughed at it, but we see how poorly he got 
along without it. 

I don't know why he wanted to go away from home. 
Perhaps he thought his father was too strict, because he 
wouldn't let him stay out late at night ; perhaps he couldn't 
get along well with his elder brother; maybe his mother 
had died and left him to the care of some One who didn't 
love him. Perhaps she had died praying for her wayward 
son, and he wanted to get away from the place, so as to be 
able to forget her prayers, that troubled him every time 
he thought of them. 

So he goes to his father and says, " Father, I think I 
could get along better if you would divide your estate, and 
give me my share now, and let me go and begin life for 
myself." I suppose the old gentleman was rich, and per- 
haps, weak-minded ; at any rate he made a very great mis- 
take. There is nothing worse for a young man than to give 
him plenty of money and send him out into the world alone. 
People talk a great deal about self-made men, and about 

[578] 



His Sermons. 579 

poor men's sons who have to struggle for their places in 
the world ; but I tell you, I have a great deal more respect 
for the rich man's son who turns out well than for the 
poor boy who has to work his way in the world. There is 
nothing that puts so many temptations in a young man's 
way as having plenty of money. 

Well, the young man took his money and went off; per- 
haps he went down to Egypt to get as far away from home 
as possible, and having plenty of money, I have no doubt, 
he was very well received, and became very popular. He 
was well educated and agreeable ; perhaps was able to sing, 
and could entertain his friends with comic songs. He used 
to go to the opera four nights in the week, and the other 
three nights he spent at the theater and billiard rooms. 
He was certain to have plenty of friends as long as his 
money lasted, but after awhile he got to the end of his 
rope, and then his friends all deserted him; just as they did 
a poor fellow whom I once knew, who had plenty of friends 
and money, but after awhile he broke down, and got into 
jail, and not one of his sporting friends ever came near him. 
Some Christian people who were visiting at the jail went 
to see him in the name of the Lord, and that woke him up 
to understand who his real friends were. 

We read that after awhile this prodigal began to be in 
want. His friends were gone, and he had got down very 
low, but I am happy to say, he didn't get down low enough 
to beg. 

There was no meaner thing a Jew could do than to take 
care of swine ; but it is very much to his credit that he 
chose to do this rather than lie around the streets loafing 
and begging. I had a thousand times rather be a swine- 
herd than a beggar. 

I can see him there among the swine-troughs, ragged 
and hungry, the tears standing in his eyes, as he thinks of 



580 Dwight L. Moody: 

his father's well-filled table ; a long table, with a good many 
people around it, but not long enough to reach to him in 
that far away country. 

We find that no one gave him anything to eat. If he 
had been a pig they might have fed him, but being noth- 
ing but a man he was left to take care of himself. 

O, my friends, that is just the way with the devil. He 
will lead you away from home, and off into a far country, 
and into pleasure and vice, and then, when you have lost 
everything in his service, he will push you down, down, 
down ; and when he gets you into the ditch, or into the 
pit of ruin, instead of giving you anything to help you he 
will laugh at you, and mock you for your folly. 

There was another thing which the prodigal lost besides 
his money, and that was, his testimony. Some of those 
old friends of his, if they chanced to see him out there 
among the swine, would doubtless laugh at him, and he, 
perhaps, would straighten himself up and say, " You laugh 
at me, and call me a fool and a vagabond because I am 
poor, and all in rags, but you needn't be so proud. I 
belong to a respectable family ; my father has plenty of 
money ; he lives in a fine house, and even his servants dress 
better than you do." How those young fellows would 
laugh at that! "Your father rich! You look like it, don't 
you? Your father have servants? Your father have 
clothes ! " And then the poor fellow, thinking of himself, 
couldn't answer them a word. He had lost his testimony : 
nobody would believe that he was the son of a great, rich 
man, up there in Judea. 

Just so every backslider from God loses his testimony 
when he falls into temptation, and gets away from the favor 
of his Lord ; and if he does sometimes stand up in meeting 
and talk to the people about the way of life they laugh 



His Sermons. 581 

at him, and say, " You don't look or act as if you were a 
child of God." 

Sin took this young man away from home, just as it 
takes us all away from God. Now the question is, How did 
he come to get back again? 

The parable tells us, that after awhile he came to him- 
self; that is, he woke up to the fact that he was miserable 
because he was away from his father. There was one 
thing that the prodigal never lost — he lost his home ; he 
lost his money ; he lost his clothes ; he lost his good name ; 
he lost his respectability ; he lost his testimony ; but he 
never lost his father's love. That was his right through it 
all. 

I find a good many men who are living in sin, who 
wonder why it is that God does not answer their prayers. 
I will tell you why it is. God loves them too much to 
answer their prayers while they stay away from him. Sup- 
pose the prodigal son had written his father a letter, saying : 
'"' Father, I am in want ; please send me some money." Do 
you suppose his father would have sent it? 

If he had it would have been the worst thing he could 
have done for the boy. The proper thing for the prodigal 
to do was to go home; and just as long as his father 
kept him supplied with money off there in that foreign 
country there was no reason to expect him to come back. 
If you have gone off into sin, if you have got away from 
God, you must never expect him to feed you, and clothe 
you, and to supply all your wants, the same as if you were 
in his house sitting down with him and the other children 
at his table. What God wants of his " prodigal sons " is 
for them to come home, and when he gets them with him 
he will supply their wants and answer their prayers. 

Well, I can imagine that one day a neighbor from his 
native town inquired after the young man, and, at last, 



582 Dwight L. Moody: 

found him down there among the swine. Of course he 
was greatly surprised. 

" Why don't you go home to your father ? " says the 
neighbor. 

" I don't know," says the prodigal. " I am not quite 
sure that my father would receive me, I am such a miser- 
able vagabond." 

" Your father loves you as much as ever," says the 
neighbor. 

" My father ! Did you see him ? How do you know 
he loves me? Does he ever speak of me? " 

'■' Ever speak of you ? He talks of you by day and dreams 
of you by night. I was over at his house the other day, 
and when I told him I was coming into this country, the 
old man, with tears in his eyes, begged me to look up his 
lost boy, and tell him to come right home, for his father was 
breaking his heart because he stayed so long away." 

O, if there is a poor prodigal here to-night, don't go on 
in that terrible delusion, that your heavenly Father has for- 
gotten you ! There isn't one of God's children that is ever 
out of his memory. 

One of the chief things in the way of this young man was 
his pride. I suppose he would have gone home long before 
he did if it hadn't been for his pride ; but he said to himself, 
" I came away with abundance, and now I don't like to go 
back in rags." But at last he comes to himself, and when 
he finds out that his father loves him, and wants to have 
him back again, he makes up his mind to return. 

You can see him out there in the field, as he gets down 
on his knees and buries his face in his hands, like Elijah 
upon Mount Carmel ; saying to himself, " I think I had 
better go home ; there is no one in the world that loves me 
as much as my father. I am surprised that he is not 
altogether ashamed of me, for well he might be. But I have 



His Sermons. 583 

been here as long as I can stand it, and now I will arise and 
go to my father ! " 

Then the memories of the old home come back to him. 
He calls to mind his childhood, and how his mother used 
to sing to him and pray with him, and how kind and good 
his father was, and how carefully they watched over him, 
and kept him away from harm and evil. He thinks of the 
tears of his mother, and remembers the day they buried 
her — I cannot help thinking that he had lost his mother, 
for there isn't anything said about her in the story — he 
remembers the morning he left home, and how his old 
father wept over him, and how he prayed at the family 
altar that the Lord God of heaven would save his boy 
from sin, and how he asked the Lord to send his angel to 
watch over him. Then the prodigal opened his eyes and 
looked at himself; shoeless, coatless, hatless — just cov- 
ered with miserable rags. " Why," he says to himself, 
" the very servants in my father's house are better off 
than I ; there is bread enough and to spare in my father's 
house, and I am so starvd that my bones almost prick 
through my skin: / will arise and go to my father!" O, 
that thousands here to-night would say with this prod- 
igal, " I will arise and go to my Father." Nine-tenths of 
the battle was won when he said those words. 

And now I see him starting on his way. He goes to 
the man that owns the pigs and tells him he isn't going 
to take care of them any longer ; he says he has heard 
from his father, who is a great and good man up there in 
Judea, and he is going back to him ; he has been away 
too long already. 

There is joy up in heaven now. I see the guardian 
angel who watches over him smiling and happy. I hear 
them ringing the bells of heaven because the lost one has 
come to himself and started for home. 



584 Dwight L. Moody: 

It is a long journey and a hard one, but he never looks 
behind him : he has had too much of that far away country 
already, and his only thought is of his home. 

I can imagine his feelings as he comes to his native land. 
The sky is brighter, the fields are greener, than the fields 
and skies in that strange country. Sometimes, as he 
trudges along his weary way, he wonders if his father is 
still living, or if he has died with a broken heart because 
of his wayward son. 

At last he comes in sight of the old mansion. There is 
the old man out on the flat roof ! Many a time he has been 
there before. Many a time his eye has been looking in 
the direction where his boy went. 

He sees his boy afar off. He cannot tell him by any- 
thing he has on ; but love is keen. He starts for him. You 
can see his long white hair floating in the wind as he leaps 
over the highway ; the spirit of youth has come back to 
him. The servants look at him and wonder what has 
come over him. It is the only time God is represented as 
running, and that is to meet a poor returning prodigal 
soul. 

" But when he was yet a great way off his father saw 
him, and had compassion " on him. He didn't say, " He 
went away without cause, I will not go to meet him/ 5 but, 
rushing out, he falls upon his neck, and kisses him ; and 
the servants come running out to see what is the matter. 

And now the boy begins to make his speech : " Father, 
I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no 
more worthy to be called thy son " — and just as he is going 
to say, " Make me as one of thy hired servants," the father 
interrupts him, and says to one servant, " Go bring the 
best robe and put it on him ! " and to another, " Go to my 
jewel-box and get a ring and put it on his finger ! " and 
to another one, " Go and get a pair of shoes ! " and to 



His Sermons. 585 

another, " Go and kill the fatted calf ! " What joy there 
was in that home ! 

My friend, don't you know that since that time this story 
has been repeated nearly every day — prodigals coming 
home — and I never yet heard of one but what had a warm 
welcome. I have got a letter here, I think it is one of 
the last letters I received from England. The letter goes 
on to state that a son and husband had left his father's 
house — left his wife and children — without a cause; and 
now, in closing up the letter, the sister says : " He need not 
fear reproach, only love awaits him at home." That man 
may be here to-night. My words may reach him, and if 
so I beg him to return from his erring ways. Listen ! your 
sister says that no reproach or harsh words will meet you 
on your return home ; only love will welcome you when you 
enter the door. 

The father of the prodigal did not reproach his boy: 
and so God does not reproach the sinner. He knows 
what human nature is — how liable a mortal is to go astray. 
He is always ready to forgive and take you back. Christ 
says he will forgive ; he is full of love, and compassion, and 
tenderness. If a poor sinner comes and confesses, God 
is willing and ready to forgive him. 

There was a lady who came down to Liverpool to see 
us privately; it was just before we were about to leave 
the city to go up to London to preach. With tears and 
sobs she told a very pitiful story. It was this : She said 
she had a boy nineteen years of age who had left her. 
She gave me his photograph, and said, " You stand be- 
fore many and large assemblies, Mr. Moody. You may 
see my dear boy before you. If you do see him, tell him 
to come back to me. O, implore him to come to his sor- 
rowing mother, to his deserted home ! He may be in 
trouble ; he may be suffering ; tell him for his loving mother 
39 



586 Dwight L. Moody: 

that all will be forgiven and forgotten, and that he will 
find comfort and peace at home." That young man may 
be in this hall to-night. If he is, I want to tell him that 
his mother loves him still. 

I may not be speaking to Arthur to-night, but there may 
be a great many other Arthurs who have left their father's 
house. Let me entreat you to go home. Send a dispatch 
that you are coming, and start at once. And O, what joy 
there will be in those sorrowful homes when these long-lost 
prodigals return ! By and by you may learn that your 
mother is dead, and then nothing will ever comfort you 
for having broken her heart. Wanderer, arise and go to 
thy father, who loves thee ; to thy mother, who weeps over 
thee ; and let us pray that multitudes of souls wandering 
from God may be this very night brought home. 

Some of you may say, " I don't believe God will forgive 
a sinner, or take him back all at once, when he has been 
disobeying him for so many years." 

Wouldn't you do it? Come, now, if you were to find 
your long-lost prodigal son in the kitchen when you got 
home — in the kitchen because he didn't feel worthy to go 
into the parlor — wouldn't you forgive him, after he began 
to see what a sinner he had been ? 

I can tell you something about this out of my own ex- 
perience. My father died when we were little children, 
and my mother had a hard time with her large family of 
boys and girls. After a while one of the older boys took 
it into his head that he could make his fortune all alone 
by himself, and so he ran away. 

For years and years we heard nothing of him. Some- 
times it seemed as if my mother's heart would break. " O, 
if I could only know he was dead," she would sometimes 
say, " it would be better than this. Maybe he is sick and 
in need, or maybe he has fallen in with wicked men, who 
will make him as bad as themselves." 



His Sermons. 587 

We used to sit around the fire on the stormy winter 
nights and listen to the stories that mother used to tell 
us about our father, about what he said, how he looked, 
how he was kind to a friend, and lost a great deal of 
money by him, and so our little home was mortgaged, and 
we were poor; but if anybody happened to speak the 
name of that lost boy a great silence would fall upon 
us, the tears would come into my mother's eyes, and 
then we would all steal away softly to bed, whispering 
our good-nights, because we felt that the mention of that 
name was like a sword-thrust to the heart of our mother. 

After we got to bed we would lie awake and listen to 
the roaring of the wind among the mountains, thinking 
perhaps he was out in the cold somewhere. Maybe he 
had gone to sea, and while we were snug in bed he might 
be keeping watch on the wave-beaten deck ; perhaps climb- 
ing the mast in just such darkness and storm. Now and 
then, between the gusts, a sound would be heard like the 
wail of the summer wind when it used to make harp-strings 
of the leaves and branches of the great maple-trees in the 
door-yard : now, soft and gentle ; then, rising louder and 
louder. How we would hold our breath and listen ! Mother 
was sitting up to pray for her lost boy. Next morning, 
perhaps, she would send one of us down to the post-office 
to ask for a letter — a letter from him, though she never 
said so. But no letter ever came. 

Long years afterward, when our mother was growing 
old, and her hair was turning gray, one summer afternoon 
a dark sunburned man, with heavy black beard, was seen 
coming in at the gate. 

He came up under the window first, and looked in as if 
he were afraid there might be strangers living in the house. 
He had stopped at the church-yard, on his way through 
the village, to see whether there were two graves instead 



588 Dwight L. Moody: 

of one where our father had been laid so many years ago, 
but there was only one grave there : surely his mother 
was not dead. But still she might have moved away. Then 
he went around and knocked at the door, and his mother 
came to open it. 

Years of hardship and exposure to sun and storm had 
made him strange even to his mother. She invited him to 
come in, but he did not move or speak ; he stood there 
humbly and penitently; and, as a sense of his ingratitude 
began to overwhelm him, the big tears found their way 
over his weather-beaten cheeks. By those tears the mother 
recognized her long-lost son. He had come at last. There 
was so much of the old home in him that he couldn't always 
stay away. But he would not cross its threshold until he 
confessed his sin against it, and heard from the same lips 
which had prayed so often and so long for him the sweet 
assurance that he was forgiven. " No, no," said he, " I 
cannot come in until you forgive me." 

Do you suppose that mother kept her boy out there in 
the porch until he had gone through with a long list of 
apologies, done a long list of penances, and said over so 
many prayers? Not a bit of it. She took him to her heart 
at once ; she made him come right in ; she forgave him all, 
and rejoiced over his coming more than over all the other 
children that hadn't ran away. 

And that is just the way God forgives all the prodigal 
souls who come back to him. O wanderer, come home! 
come home! 



His Sermons. 589 

II. 
THE PROPHET DANIEL. 

THE next thing we. hear is, that the king has had another 
dream. He seems to have been a great man for dreams. 
This time he saw a great tree which " reached unto heaven, 
and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth : . . . and, 
behold, a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven ; 
who cried aloud, Hew down the tree, and cut off his 
branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit : let 
the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from 
his branches : nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots 
in the earth. . . . Let his heart be changed from man's, 
and let a beast's heart be given unto him ; and let seven 
times pass over him : ... to the intent that the living 
may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of 
men, and giveth it. to whomsoever he will." 

The king seems to have been as much puzzled by this 
dream as by the other, and nobody could tell him what 
it meant until he sent for Daniel. Even he was troubled 
about it at first ; but presently the Lord showed it to him, 
and then he preached such a sermon to the king about 
his pride, and the necessity of repentance, that the king's 
face turned pale, and his knees began to shake, and it was 
not long before he lost his reason and wandered away from 
his palace out into the woods and the deserts, and became 
more like a beast than a man. But at last the Lord had 
mercy on him. His counselors and princes gathered about 
him again and brought him back to his palace. And the 
king's heart was softened. I think he became truly con- 
verted to God, and from this time we don't hear him say- 
ing any more, " Is not this great Babylon that I have 



590 Dwight L. Moody: 

builded ? " But we hear him blessing the Most High, and 
praising and honoring Him whose dominion is everlast- 
ing, and whose kingdom is from generation to generation. 

And now the king makes one more proclamation, differ- 
ent from all others. Up to this time he has been telling 
other people what to do ; now he begins to speak of his 
own duty, and he says, " I, Nebuchadnezzar, will do this, 
and do that." " I praise and extol and honor the King 
of heaven, all of whose works are truth." He has found 
out his own duty. His heart is softened, and although 
we do not hear anything more of him, I have no doubt 
that Daniel and he used to walk the streets of Babylon 
arm-in-arm, and talk over their experiences together. And 
when the king died I feel quite sure that he went safely 
to heaven, to be welcomed by the God of Daniel; and 
through the long eternity King Nebuchadnezzar will rejoice 
that the young man, Daniel, when he came down to Baby- 
lon, did not follow the fashion of that wicked capital, but 
took his stand for God, though it might have cost him his 
life. 

The next thing we hear of Babylon is, that the grandson 
of Nebuchadnezzar, a wild young prince, called Belshazzar, 
has come to the throne. On a certain occasion he makes 
a great feast to a thousand of his lords. They come 
together in a great banquet-chamber, and they drink and 
carouse all night long. They do not care for the armies 
of Cyrus, which are besieging the city. They trust in its 
high walls and its gates of brass, and feel themselves per- 
fectly safe. At last, when the head of the young king 
has been quite turned with wine, he orders the golden 
vessels which his grandfather had taken from God's temple 
at Jerusalem to be brought into the banquet-hall that they 
may drink from them in honor of the gods of Babylon. 
But while they are doing this impious thing, behold, the 



His Sermons. 591 

fingers of a man's hand appear writing upon the wall the 
doom of the king of Babylon. 

Drunk as he is, the miserable king is frightened. 

" Bring in the wise men," says he. And the wise men 
come in haste, and stare at the writing but not one of 
them is able to read or understand it. No uncircumcised 
eye can read God's handwriting. 

Somehow or other the news of this strange affair reaches 
the ears of the king's mother, and she sends a servant 
to him, telling him that in the days of his grandfather 
there was a man in Babylon who could interpret dreams 
and reveal secrets, and do all manner of strange things, 
and that maybe he would be able to read the writing. 

It seems that Daniel had been lost sight of for the last 
fifteen years ; but now there is special work for him to do, 
and so they find him out and bring him in and ask him 
to read the writing — "Mene, Mene, Tekcl, Upharsin: " and 
the meaning of it was clear as daylight to him. 

Now I have no doubt that a good many courtiers, if 
they had seen such writing as that upon the wall of the 
king's palace, would have softened the meaning of it a 
little, and not have given it in its full strength, for fear 
of offending the king. But that is not Daniel's fashion at 
all. He reads it just as. God writes it. "Mene: God hath 
numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Tekcl: Thou art 
weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Peres: 
Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and 
Persians." 

Ah, poor miserable Belshazzar! Even now the soldiers 
of Cyrus have turned away the waters of the Euphrates, 
and are coming into the city along the empty banks. The 
soldiers are battering away at the door of your palace, and 
before morning your blood shall be spilled upon the stones, 
along with the wine which you have been drinking out 



59 2 Dwight L. Moody: 

of the vessels from God's holy temple at Jerusalem, You 
are weighed in God's balance, and found wanting. 

My friends, suppose God should begin to weigh some 
of you to-day : suppose you were to step into the balances 
now, don't you think you would be found wanting? Get 
into God's scale, take along with you your education, and 
your wealth, and your dignity, and your fine clothes, and 
everything that you have that is splendid, and let the Lord 
put the ten commandments against you, and up you will 
go like feathers — " weighed in the balances, and found 
wanting." Only they who have Christ in their souls can 
stand the test of God's weighing. Dare you step into the 
balances to-day? 

Some one will ask me, " Mr. Moody, dare you step into 
the balances to-day, and be weighed? Do you know that 
you would be saved if the Lord should bring you to judg- 
ment ? " Yes, thanks be to God ! Christ is able to save 
me, even me ; and he will save all of you who will cast away 
your sins, and take Christ instead. 

After a while Darius, the Mede, comes to the throne 
of Babylon. He must have met Daniel somewhere in 
his travels, for no sooner does he set up the kingdom 
than he puts him into a place of great power. He chooses 
a hundred and twenty princes, whom he places over the 
kingdom, and over these princes he appoints three presi- 
dents, and he makes Daniel the president of the presidents, 
so that he really is the first man in the kingdom after the 
king. His business is to " see that the king suffer no 
damage ; " that is, he is to keep watch of the accounts, to 
see that nobody cheat the king. This must have been a 
very difficult place, and Daniel must have had his hands 
full. He had to watch those hundred and twenty rascals 
who were all the while trying to steal something off the 
revenue, and to go over their accounts again and again, 
so as to be certain that they were correct to a penny, .^ 



His Sermons. 593 

It was not long before Daniel became very unpopular 
with the princes. I seem to hear them talking among 
themselves in this way : — 

" There is that miserable old Tew, Daniel ; if we only 
had him out of the way we could make no end of money. 
We would very speedily be rich ; we could have our country 
houses and our city houses, and our fine horses and 
chariots, and live in the very highest style off the revenue 
of this kingdom; but that old fellow watches us as nar- 
rowly as a cat watches a mouse. We can't cheat him, even 
in a shilling." 

" Why," says another, " I never saw such a man in all 
my life. I gave in an account the other day that was only 
a few dollars short; and didn't he send it back to me, and 
make me pay the difference ? I wish he were back in Jeru- 
salem, where he came from." 

However, the king trusted Daniel; and he was such a 
thoroughly good and honest man that they could find no 
way to revenge themselves upon him. They tallked it over 
together again and again, and all agreed that there was no 
chance of getting him out of the way unless they could 
find something in his religion by which they could bring 
him into trouble. 

"We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except 
we find it against him concerning the law of his God." What 
an honor ! Nothing wrong with him, even in the eyes of 
these bad men, except that he was too faithful to his God ! 

How many of you are likely to be complained of on that 
account ? 

Finally, they hit upon a plan which they thought might 
possibly succeed. One night when they were closeted 
together in secret one of the princes said to the rest, " I 
think I have got a plan that will work. You know King 
Darius is very popular, and he is very proud of it. The 



594 Dwight L. Moody: 

people praise him a great deal, and he likes it. Now sup- 
pose we ask him to establish a royal decree, that whoso- 
ever shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, 
save of the king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. That 
will be putting the king in the place of the gods, and he 
is more likely to be flattered by that than by anything I 
can think of. Then, if once we can get that old Hebrew 
into the lions' den, we shall make a good deal more money 
than we have been able to do with him watching us all 
the time." 

This notion seemed to please the princes very well. 
They drew up the document immediately. It would not 
do to let Daniel hear of it before the king should sign it, 
and so they appointed a committee to take the decree 
down to the palace the very first thing in the morning. 
There were some lawyers among these hundred and 
twenty princes ; and I seem to see them drawing up the 
proclamation with great care according to law, making 
it firm and binding, laughing to themselves, and saying : 

" The laws of the Medes and Persians change not. If 
once we can get Darius to stamp this document with his 
signet-ring, Daniel is done for, sure enough." 

So the committee go down to the palace next morning 
to obtain the king's signature. They begin by flattering 
him. If a man wants another to do a mean thing he always 
begins by appealing to his vanity. 

" O king, we have been thinking how popular you are 
in your kingdom, and what you might do to make your- 
self even more famous than you are ; and we have come 
to the conclusion that, if you would publish a decree that 
nobody in the kingdom, for thirty days, should pray to 
any other god except yourself, it would turn the hearts of 
all the people toward you even more than now. We should 



Hts Sermons. 595 

then have a universal religion, and the king would be at 
the head of it." 

Darius felt nattered by this proposition. He turned 
it over in his mind, and presently said: — 

" That seems sensible." 

" All right," said the princes. " We thought you would 
like it ; and in order that there might not be any delay, we 
have the document here already drawn up. Now if you will 
please to stamp this with your signet-ring, we shall have 
it published right away." 

The king takes the document, reads it over, stamps his 
seal upon it; and the committee go away laughing, and 
saying, " Ha, ha ! old Hebrew, we will have you in the den 
of lions before night." 

The princes lost no time in publishing the new decree of 
the king. I can imagine some one of Daniel's friends, who 
had seen the document, going up to his office in great haste 
to give him warning that there was some trouble brewing. 

" Have you heard the news, Daniel? Those hundred and 
twenty princes have gone and got Darius to publish a 
decree that nobody shall pray to any other god except to 
the king for thirty days. That is a conspiracy against you. 
Now I want to give you a little advice ; and that is, to get 
out of this town in a hurry." 

But Daniel says he can't leave his business. He is afraid 
these hundred and twenty princes will cheat the revenues 
while he is away. His duty is right there, and he is deter- 
mined to stay there and attend to it. 

" Well, then, hadn't you better pray more secretly ? You 
have a habit, that is all well enough in ordinary times, of 
going up to your chamber, where the windows open toward 
Jerusalem, and saying your prayers there three times a day. 
And sometimes you pray pretty loud, and people out of 
doors can hear you. Now, for the next thirty days, just 



596 Dwight L. Moody: 

shut your windows while you pray; for these princes are 
sure to have some spies watching you at your prayers. 
You had better stop up the key-hole of your door, also, 
for these mean fellows are not above peeping in to watch 
you. Tt would be still better, Daniel, if you wouldn't kneel 
down at all, but say your prayers after you get into bed." 

Ah ! how many young men have gone to college, or 
to some strange place of business, and lost their peace 
of mind and their hope in Christ, because they were afraid 
to pray before their room-mates ! 

And what does Daniel say to such advice as this? He 
scouts it; he tramples it under his feet. No man shall 
hinder him from praying. No king shall frighten him 
out of his duty. He attends to his morning's work; 
looks over the accounts as usual; and when twelve o'clock 
comes he goes to his chamber, puts the windows wide 
open, kneels down and prays, not to Darius, but to the 
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. His windows are 
opened toward Jerusalem, and his face is turned that way ; 
for Jerusalem is dearer to him than his life, and the God 
of his fathers is his sure defense. I can seem to see him 
kneeling there — that old man with his white locks and 
beard, praying at the probable cost of his life ; but he does 
not seem to be troubled by the danger, neither is he angry 
at the command of the king- or the manifest wickedness 
of those hundred and twenty princes. He prays for the 
king, his friend, who, he is sure, has done this wickedness 
in some thoughtless moment. He also prays for his ene- 
mies, the princes, who are wickedly seeking to destroy him. 

Those men have taken care that two witnesses shall 
be underneath Daniel's windows at the time when he 
usually goes to pray. " Hark ! " says one to the other, 
" did you hear that ? The old man is up there praying, 
sure enough ! Listen : he is not praying to king Darius." 



His Sermons. 597 

" No," says the other ; " he is praying to the God of the 
Hebrews." 

So they listen till the prayer is finished, and then they 
hurry away to the princes to give their evidence against 
Daniel ; and the princes lose no time in laying the matter 
before the king. 

" O King Darius ! live forever. Is it not written that the 
laws of the Medes and Persians change not ? " 

"'It is," said Darius. "Anything that is stamped with 
the king's seal cannot be changed." 

" That is what we thought," said the princes. " Did 
you not make a decree that, for the next thirty days, no 
man should pray to any other god but the king? " 

"Yes I did," said' Darius. 

Then they tell him that the chief of the presidents — this 
Daniel, the Hebrew — has refused to obey the king's com- 
mand. 

Poor Darius ! " What a mistake I have made ! " says 
he. " I might have known that Daniel would never obey 
such a command as that. I had quite forgotten about 
him when I made it." 

There is not a man in all Babylon who is so troubled as 
the king. The account says that " he labored till the going 
down of the sun to deliver Daniel." But the command 
had gone forth, the law had been made, and it could not 
be changed, even for the sake of Daniel himself. 

If Darius had loved his friend as Christ loves us, he 
would have gone down into the den of lions for him. Our 
Darius, our King, counted not his life clear unto him- 
self, but freely gave it up for us. 

At sundown the king's officers take the old man away 
to the lions. They bind his hands behind him, and lead 
him along the streets of Babylon toward the den. The 
whole city goes out to see the sad procession. The princes 



598 Dwight L. Moody: 

rub their hands, and laugh over the success of their wicked 
plot; the people look on in wonder, to see such a sweet- 
faced old man led away to die like a criminal ; while poor 
Darius walks the chamber of his palace, wringing his 
hands in agony, saying, "Ah me ! I have destroyed my 
friend." 

But Daniel walks with a firm step. His old knees don't 
shake a bit. The wind of the evening plays with his white 
locks, and with a smile upon his face he goes to face, the 
lions. He has served his God for seventy years, and he 
feels sure that God will not desert him now. I can imagine 
him saying, " My God can bring me out of the jaws of the 
lions just as easily as he saved my three friends from the 
furnace of fire. But even if they eat me, I shall only die 
for my God." 

And when they put him into the den God sent one of 
his angels to shut the mouths of the lions. At the hour of 
the evening prayer Daniel kneels in the den ; and, if he can 
get the points of the compass down there, he. prays with 
his face toward Jerusalem ; then, taking one of the lions for 
his pillow, he lies down and sleeps as sweetly as any man 
in Babylon. 

The king sits up all night, thinking what his folly has 
cost him — even the life of his most faithful servant. But 
he remembers that the God of Daniel has done strange 
things for those who trusted him. He has heard of Shad- 
rach and his friends coming out of the fiery furnace ; and 
he knows that Daniel went into the den feeling that his 
God would go with him and save him. At the first dawn 
of day he orders out his chariot, and you can hear the 
wheels rattling over the pavements of Babylon before the 
people are up. Away he goes, with his horses on the run, 
to the door of the lion's den; springs out of the chariot; 
looks down into the den, and, with a voice trembling with 



His Sermons. 599 

* 

anxiety, cries out, " O Daniel, servant of the living God, 
is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver 
thee from the lions ? " 

Hark ! There comes up a voice out of the den. It is the 
voice of Daniel, to whom this morning is like the morning 
of the resurrection. He has been down to the gates of 
death, and yet he is alive. 

" O king, live forever ! My God hath sent his angel and 
hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me." 

How glad King Darius is to hear the voice of his friend 
once more ! He has him brought up out of the den, takes 
him up in his arms, and into his chariot, and away they 
go, home to the palace to breakfast together, and to talk 
over this wonderful deliverance. 

Then King Darius publishes another decree. The ex- 
perience of Daniel has thoroughly converted him ; and now 
he ordains, that in every dominion of his kingdom " men 
tremble and fear before the God of Daniel ; for he is the 
living God," who " worketh signs and wonders in heaven 
and in earth," and " who hath delivered Daniel from the 
power of the lions." 

Three times a messenger came from God to say to 
Daniel that he was greatly beloved. I love to think of 
those precious words in the 32d verse of the nth chap- 
ter of the Book of Daniel, " But the people that do know 
their God shall be strong, and do exploits." There is 
another verse like it which says, " They that be wise, shall 
shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that 
turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and 
ever." 

What has become of all the great ones who lived in 
the time of Daniel? What has become of the princes 
and the philosophers, falsely so called? Look, ye men 
of science, who go down into the bowels of the earth and 



600 Dwight L. Moody: 

dig up some dead carcass, and try to make it talk against 
the word of God; you shall all go down to death, and 
your names shall rot; but the man of God shall shine for- 
ever. This Daniel has been dead for twenty-five hundred 
years, but still increasing millions read and admire his 
life. 

May the God of Daniel be with us, the courage of 
Daniel be in us ; may we have grace to confess the Lord, 
to go through the fire, or among the lions, if need be, 
for the sake of his truth ; and when the Saviour comes, in 
the day that he makes up his jewels, may the Lord give 
each of us a place with Daniel and the shining ones. 



r His Sermons. 6oi 

III. 
MAJOR-GENERAL NAAMAN. 

OUR subject to-night is Naaman. We are told that he 
was a great man — but he was a leper. He was a great 
general — but he was a leper. He had been very successful 
in war, and his king had greatly honored him — but he was 
a leper. Day and night this terrible fact tortured him, 
and I suppose he thought he had got to go down to his 
grave with that loathsome disease upon him. 

But among the Hebrew captives was a little girl who 
waited on Mrs. Naaman, and who, I doubt not, had been 
brought up by her praying mother to trust in the God of 
Israel. She was not ashamed to confess her faith, and 
there is no doubt but she was a good and truthful girl, or 
else no one would have believed her strange words. 

One day she said to her mistress, " Would God my 
lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria ! for he 
would recover him of his leprosy." 

Her mistress looked at her with amazement. " What ! 
What is that you say? Cure my husband of his leprosy? 
Did you ever hear of his curing a leper? " 

" No," says the little girl, " I didn't ; but I have heard 
of his doing greater things than that would be." And 
then, perhaps, she told how the prophet had taken the 
mantle of Elijah and smote the River Jordan with it, and 
it opened and let him through dry-shod ; and how he had 
saved the two sons of that widow from being sold into 
slavery by means of that little bit of oil ; and how he had 
raised to life the dead son of another woman. Naaman 
hears it and believes the little girl, so he goes to the king 
about it. 
40 



602 Dwight L. Moody: 

"I'll tell you what I'll do," says the king; "I'll write 
you a letter of introduction to the king of Israel, and 
you go down and try it." So he gives him a letter to 
the king, thinking, if the thing is possible the king will 
know all about it, of course; and off the man goes, about 
one hundred and fifty miles, to see the king of Israel. 
He took along a pretty good doctor's bill, too ; I don't 
just know how to figure it, but it was over a hundred 
thousand dollars, and with the letter to the king, no doubt 
he thought everything was all right. 

I can see him and his escort sweeping out the gates 
of Damascus, and coming up, in due time, to the palace 
of the king of Israel in grand style. He sends in the 
letter, and when the king reads it he turns round and 
says, " What does this mean ? Am I God, to kill and to 
make alive? Here is the king of Syria sending me a 
letter saying, ' Now, when this letter is come unto thee, 
behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to 
thee that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.' This 
means war; the king of Syria is trying to get up a quar- 
rel with me ; " and the king of Israel rent his mantle from 
top to bottom. 

It is not long before the news of it goes through the 
whole city, and at last it comes to the ears of Elisha 
that the king has rent his clothes on account of a let- 
ter which a Syrian general has brought him, asking him 
to cure his leprosy. So he sends word to the king, say- 
ing, " Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes ? Let him 
come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet 
in Israel." So the man goes down to the house of the 
prophet, a very plain house it might have been, and sends 
in word that Major-General Naaman, of Syria, is out- 
side. No doubt he thought the prophet would feel much 
honored by the presence of such a great man, but the 



His Sermons. 603 

prophet doesn't even go out to see him. He merely sends 
out his servant to say to him, " Go and wash in Jordan 
seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and 
thou shalt be clean." 

And now Naaman is as mad as he can be. 

" The idea ! Go and wash in Jordan ! That ditch ! We 
wouldn't call it a river at all in Damascus. Does he mean 
to insult me? Does he mean to insinuate that I don't keep 
my body clean? I thought — " 

Ah, that is just the trouble. He had marked out a way 
of his own for the prophet to heal him, and was mad 
because he didn't follow his plan. That is just the trouble 
with a great many people who come to God to be saved. 
They think God ought to come in this way, and he comes 
in that way. No matter what way you have marked out 
for God, he will take some other way. You will never 
get into God's kingdom till you are ready to come in 
God's way. 

" I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, 
and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike 
his hand over the place, and recover the leper." 

" He might have said, I thought he would come out, 
and bow, and scrape, and be very much honored at receiv- 
ing a call from the distinguished Major-General Naaman, 
and instead of that he pays me no attention at all ! " 

That is- just the way with some seekers of religion ; 
they don't want to be converted in this way, but in that 
way; sometimes they won't be converted in such revival 
meetings as these, but must be converted at some regular 
church. Sometimes they say : " I won't be converted at 
a Methodist church, if I ain't converted at all." Or, " I 
won't be converted in a Baptist church, anyhow." But 
the very way they won't go is the way they must go, 
for God sees it is necessary to break their stubborn wills 
and mortify their pride. 



604 Dwight L. Moody: 

Naaman's pride has got a terrible blow right over the 
head, and how ^terribly mad he is ! But his servants are 
pretty shrewd fellows, so they let him cool off a little, 
and then they begin to talk to him. 

I tell you I had a thousand times rather a man should 
get mad under a sermon than go to sleep under it. If 
he gets mad and goes out he will come back again when 
he gets over it; but if he is asleep it is all lost time try- 
ing to save him. 

" Now," said the servants, " if he had told you to do 
some great thing wouldn't you have done it? Suppose 
he had told you to take cod-liver oil three times a day 
for ten years, wouldn't you have done it? If he had 
prescribed some awful bitter drug wouldn't you have 
swallowed it? If he had told you to go and bring him 
twice as much money wouldn't you have thought the 
cure cheap enough at that price? And now, when he 
says, Go wash in the Jordan seven times, hadn't you bet- 
ter do it?" 

There is one thing in Naaman's favor, he took the mes- 
sage, though he didn't like the messenger. Down to 
Jordan he goes, and dips himself once in the water, say- 
ing to himself, " They will laugh at me terribly when I 
get back if I don't get cured of my leprosy, so I may as 
well try it." But when he comes up and looks to see if 
his leprosy is one-seventh gone, and finds no change at all, 
he begins to be discouraged. But he is in the way of 
obedience. God's prophet has told him to dip seven times, 
and he is going to do it. 

" Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice." If ever you 
get out of the pit of Adam you must get out just where he 
got in. He got in by disobeying God, and the way out 
again is by obedience. Down he goes the second time. 

Now, if there had been some of these Chicago Christians 



His Sermons. 605 

there they would have said, " Well, Naaman, how do you 
feel now?" but he didn't feel any better. Down he goes 
the third time, and again, and again; still no change. The 
sixth time he comes out and shakes himself and rubs the 
water off him, and looks at his flesh. Still no improvement ! 
Once more; and now, as he comes up, he feels a thrill of 
Health ; as quick as he can get the water out of his eyes he 
sees that he is cured ! his leprosy has floated away in the 
waters of Jordan — the waters of death and judgment — and 
now he comes out in a new body — a resurrected body ! 

He lost his temper; then he lost his pride; then he lost 
his leprosy; that is generally the order in which proud, 
rebellious sinners are converted. 

And now how happy he is. Hear him shout, " This is 
the happiest day of my life. I am cleansed ; I am 
cleansed ; I am a leper no more ! " 

Away he goes to the prophet's house and offers him 
the gifts he has brought, but the prophet won't have any- 
thing at all. 

It would have spoiled this beautiful story if he had 
taken anything for his work. u The gift of God is eter- 
nal life." You cannot buy anything of God. So far as 
God and his prophet are concerned Naaman takes back 
to Syria with him everything he brought — except his 
leprosy. 

And that is the way with you, sinner. When you come 
to Christ you haven't anything that Christ wants to take 
from you except it be your sins. Naaman might have 
taken his leprosy back with him if he hadn't obeyed the 
prophet and dipped seven times in Jordan, and you will 
take your sins down to death with you unless you submit 
your will to Christ. The battle has to be fought out on 
the line of your will. Who will obey Him to-night? 
Who will trust Him to-night? May God open your eyes 
and show you how to be saved! 



6o6 Dwight L. Mo6dy; 

■ 

IV. 
ELIJAH. 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT was once asked how he 
had been able to conquer the world. " By not delay- 
ing," was his reply. 

Now, here is a matter which I want you all to decide 
without delay; " If the Lord be God, follow him." A man 
that is undecided cannot have any peace. He may intend 
some day to settle the question of his duty to God, and 
to make his arrangements to reach heaven at last, but 
Satan is all the while tempting him to put it off. There 
is nothing that Satan hates in a man worse than prompt 
decision. What was it that made Moses so great? It was, 
that he decided for God. What was it that made Daniel 
not only a prince in Babylon, but a prince of God's people 
for all time? It was because he "purposed in his heart 
to serve his God." What made the poor prodigal son so 
happy? It was his decision, " I will arise and go to my 
father." 

O how many a man is lost for want of decision ! How 
was it with Agrippa? He hesitated: "Almost thou per- 
suadest me to be a Christian." Look at Pilate — lost for 
want of moral courage and decision; and thousands upon 
thousands of men and women have gone down to the 
same ruin for want of prompt decision in matters of duty 
to God. 

Now, young man, if there is anything in this religion 
there is everything in it. If it is false let us find it out, 
and the sooner the better. If Christianity is a myth, let 
us denounce it ; if it is a divine revelation, let us accept it. 
If the Bible is not true, let us burn it. What is the use of 



His Sermons. 607 

publishing so many millions of copies, and sending them 
out over the wide world? -If Christianity is a sham, then 
let us build its tomb and shout over it, " There is no 
heaven, there is no hell ! man dies like the dog ! " But if 
the Bible is true, let us take our stand upon it; if Christ 
is the son of God, let us believe on him. 

If bad men had written this Bible they wouldn't have 
said so much about God ; and if good men wrote it with- 
out any help from God they wouldn't have ventured to 
tell a lie, and to claim that God inspired them. So, then, 
the question comes to you which Elijah put to those men 
on Mount Carmel. 

Now let us look at the surroundings of this case. 

King Ahab had forsaken the God of Israel, and all the 
court people and " upper ten " had followed his example. 
But there was an old prophet out in the mountains to whom 
God said : " Go to Ahab, and tell him the heavens shall be 
shut up, and there shall be no more rain." 

Away he goes to the wicked king: bursts in upon him 
like a clap of thunder, gives his message, and hurries away. 

I suppose Ahab laughed at the old prophet. " What ! 
no more ram ? Why, the fellow must be crazy ! " 

Pretty soon the weather gets very dry. The earth is 
parched, and begins to crack open. The rivers have but 
little water in them, and the brooks dry up altogether. The 
trees die; all the grass perishes, and the cattle die, too. 
I 4 amine ; starvation ; death ! If rain doesn't come pretty 
soon there won't be a live man or woman left in all the 
kingdom. 

One day the king is talking with the prophet Obadiah. 
You see he did have one good man near him, along with 
all the prophets of the false gods. Almost every one likes 
to have some good man within reach, even if he is ever so 
bad himself. He may be wanted in a hurry some time. 



6o8 Dwight L. Moody: 

" See here, Obadiah," says King Ahab, " you go one 
way and I'll go another, and we'll see if we can't find some 
water somewhere." 

So Obadiah started off to find water, but he hadn't got a 
great way before Elijah bursts out upon him. 

" O, Elijah ! is that you ? Ahab has been hunting for 
you everywhere, and couldn't find you." 

" Yes ; I'm here," says Elijah. " You go and tell Ahab 
I. want to see him." 

" I dare not do that," says Obadiah ; " for just as soon 
as I tell him you are here the Spirit will catch you away 
and take you off somewhere else; and then the king will 
be very angry, and maybe he'll kill me." 

" No," says Elijah. "As the Lord liveth, I will meet 
Ahab face to face this day." 

So Obadiah hurries off to find Ahab, and tells him he 
has seen the prophet. 

"What! Elijah?" 

" Yes." 

" Why didn't you bring him along? " 

" He wouldn't come. He says you must come to him." 

Ahab wasn't used to have people talk that way to him; 
but he was anxious to see the prophet, so he went. 

When he sees him he is very angry, and cries, "Art 
thou he that troubleth Israel ? " 

" Not at all," says Elijah. " You are the man that is 
troubling Israel — going off after Baal, and leading ever so 
many of the people with you. Now, we have had enough 
of this sort of thing. Some are praying to Jehovah, and 
some are praying to Baal, and we must have this ques- 
tion settled. You just bring all your prophets and all 
the priests of Baal up to Mount Carmel, and I also will 
come. We will make us each an altar and offer sacrifice 



His Sermons. 609 

on it; and the God that answereth by fire let him be 
God." 

"Agreed," says Ahab ; and off he goes to tell his priests 
to get ready for the trial. 

I fancy that was a great day when that question was 
to be decided. All the places of business were closed, 
and everybody started for Mount Carmel. There were 
eight hundred and fifty of the prophets and priests of Baal 
altogether. I fancy I can see them going up in a grand 
procession, with the king in his chariot at their head. 

" Fine looking men, ain't they ? " says one man to 
another as they go by. " They'll be able to do great things 
up there on the mountain." 

But there Elijah marched, all alone : a rough man, clad 
in the skins of beasts, with a staff in his hand. No ban- 
ners, no procession, no great men in his train ! But the 
man who could hold the keys of heaven for three years and 
six- months wasn't afraid to be alone. 

Then says Elijah to the people, " How long halt ye 
between two opinions? Let the priests of Baal build them 
an altar and offer sacrifice, but put no fire under; and I 
will do the same : and the God that answereth by fire let 
him be God." So the priests of Baal built their altar, and 
offered their sacrifice. 

I am sure if God hadn't held him back, Satan would have 
brought up a little spark out of hell to set that sacrifice on 
fire. But God wouldn't let him. 

Then the priests began to pray : " O Baal, hear us ! O 
Baal, hear us ! " 

Elijah might have said : " Why haven't you prayed to 
Baal for water this dry weather? You might just as well 
ask him for water as for fire." 

After a long time they begin to get hoarse. 

" You must pray louder than that if you expect Baal to 



610 Dwight L. Moody: 

hear you," says the old prophet. " Maybe he is asleep : 
pray louder, so as to wake him up." 

Poor fellows ! they haven't any voice left ; so they begin 
to prav in blood. They cut themselves with knives, and 
lift their streaming hands and arms to Baal. But no fire 
comes down. 

It is getting toward sundown. The prophet of the Lord 
builds an altar. Mind, he doesn't have anything to do 
with the altar of Baal, but builds an entirely different one, 
on the ruins of the altar of Jehovah which had been 
broken down. " We won't have anybody saying there is 
any trick about this thing," says the prophet. So they 
bring twelve barrels of water and pour over the altar. I 
don't know how they managed to get so much water; but 
they did it. 

Then Elijah prays : " Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in 
Israel." He didn't have to pray very long. God heard 
him at once, and down came the fire! It burnt up the 
sacrifice, burnt up the wood, licked up the water, and burnt 
up the very stones of the altar. 

Nobody could halt any longer. The people cried, " The 
Lord, he is the God ; the Lord, he is the God." 

O, young man, I'll take you to another mountain, Mount 
Calvary. It is more wonderful than Carmel. The story of 
the cross is the great wonder of the world. 

A man once tried to sell me a book of wonders. I 
looked it over, and then asked him if it ha.d anything 
about the cross of Calvary in it. He said " No." 

" What," said I, " a book of wonders, and the greatest of 
all wonders left out ! " 

There the sun refused to shine, the rocks were rent, the 
earth shook, the graves were opened, and the dead came 
forth. Howi wonderful ! 



His Sermons. 6ii 

So now there are wonders here. The Son of God stoops 
down and gives these inquirers victory ; drunkards are con- 
verted, and publicans and harlots are coming into the 
kingdom of God. 

Now hundreds and thousands are convinced, but they 
are holding on to some darling sin. A man could not 
decide to give his heart to Christ the other day because he 
had a bet. Now, suppose that man dies, what will become 
of his soul? 

O, why not come out now ? Why not come out to-night ? 
Just ask yourselves: "What stands in the way? " 

" O," } r ou say, " I can't stand those jeers." But can't 
you set your face like a flint against Satan and decide to- 
night? You cannot find a man who has decided for Christ 
who ever regretted it. I have stood at the bedside of many 
who were dying, and I never saw one that regretted that 
he had decided for Christ. 

O, decide now. " Now is the accepted time." The last 
night I preached in the second Farwell Hall I made the 
greatest mistake of my life. I told the people to take this 
text home with them and pray over it. But as we went out 
the fire-bells were ringing, and I never saw that audience 
again. The fire had come. The city was in ashes ; and 
perhaps some of those very people were burned up in it. 
There is no other time t© be saved but now. 



612 Dwight L. Moody: 

V. 

SAUL OF TARSUS. 

/ 

YOU remember that last Sunday I had a man for my 
text ; to-night we have another, the man of whom I have 
been reading. 

To my mind the case of Saul of Tarsus is a great deal 
harder than that of the prodigal son. It didn't take long 
to convince the prodigal of his duty after he had spent all 
and began to be in want. Down there among the swine. 
he was at the bottom of the ladder, but up among the Phari- 
sees in Jerusalem Saul of Tarsus was at the top. There 
couldn't be a more hopeless case. Even Caiaphas, or Pilate, 
might be converted to Christ easier than Saul. He was 
a mad persecutor of the Christians, he helped in the murder 
of Stephen, he was full of zeal and fury, and also full of 
religion. If any one had told him that he would become 
a Christian at Damascus how he would have raved about 
it! 

One reason why he was so mad was, that when the dis- 
ciples had been scattered from Jerusalem they went every- 
where preaching the Gospel of the Son of God, and now 
the news had come up that some of them had gone down 
to Damascus and were preaching the Gospel there; and 
then Saul, breathing out threatenings and slaughter, goes 
to the chief priests and gets the necessary documents, so 
that he may bring these heretics, bound, to Jerusalem. 

Now this Saul of Tarsus was an upright man. He 
prayed as long as any other man; he knew all about the 
law, and kept it ; he was blameless as touching the law ; 
and, according to some people in Chicago, he didn't need 
to be converted at all : he was good enough already. True, 



His Sermons. 613 

he hated Jesus Christ, but so do a great many other men 
who are honest and pay their debts, and are thought to be 
good enough without conversion. 

I do not think he was a stranger to Christ. It was but 
three years since Christ's ascension, and Saul must have 
seen him and known all about his miracles, his death, 
and his resurrection. He was probably well acquainted 
with Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, and with 
Joseph of Arimathea, who was a prominent man; both of 
whom were friends of Christ. But he hates Christ, and 
all who believe in him. 

I can see him as he rides out of the city starting for 
Damascus, one hundred and thirty-six miles distant. He 
rides through Samaria, but the Jews have no dealing with 
the Samaritans, and so he doesn't speak a word to one of 
them. Now he comes in sight of the beautiful city, so 
beautiful, it is said, that Mohammed, when he saw it, 
would not look at it a second time, lest it should win his 
heart from the city of the prophet. It is noon ; the sun 
shines in meridian splendor; but just then there is a blind- 
ing light above the brightness of the sun, and the whole 
company, in amazement, fall from their frightened horses 
and lie with their faces to the dust. 

The Son of God just drew back the cloud and gave one 
look, and the brightness of his face was so dazzling that 
they could not bear the sight for an instant. Saul caught 
one glimpse of it and it made him blind. 

Then a voice : " Saul, Saul ! " The Son of God knew him 
by name. He knows every sinner by name; knows where 
he lives just as well as he knew where Saul was when he 
sent Ananias to his lodging in Damascus. I hope the Son 
of God will call sinners here by their names, and that they 
will hear his voice and be converted, like Saul. 

And now the question, " Why persecutest thou me ? " 



614 Dwight L: Moody: 

What reason could Saul give for persecuting the Son of 
God? 

Some people may think it was hard for the Christians 
in Damascus to have Saul come down to arrest them, and 
to bring them bound to Jerusalem, but it was a great deal 
harder for Saul than for any one else. Christ says to him, 
" It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." 

In that country they used a long stick, with a bit of steel 
in the end of it, for driving cattle ; and sometimes, when 
the ox was contrary, he would kick back against the piece 
of steel, striking it into himself. This was the illustration 
which Christ used to show this stubborn Pharisee that his 
way was a hard one. 

A lady in the inquiry room, the other night, said to me, 
<v It is so easy to sin, and so hard to do right.''' Now that 
is the same as saying that the service of the devil is an 
easy service, and that God's service is a hard one ; but 
Christ says, " My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 
It is " the way of the transgressor " that " is hard." 

Let us take some of the different classes of the devil's 
servants. Take a harlot : is her life an easy one ? It is 
a short one ; only an average of seven years ; with sha-me 
and sorrow all the time. What memories of the old home, 
and of mother and sisters, come up to haunt the poor 
fallen one ! Those who flatter her do not love her, and at 
last she dies in loneliness, and perhaps in want, and is 
laid in a nameless grave. 

Take the drunkard : is his life an easy one ? I have a 
man in my mind whom I tried to warn from the beginning 
of his evil ways before I went to England. He was only 
a moderate drinker then, but now he is a sot; his wife 
has died of a broken heart, his children have been taken 
from him and placed where he may never see them again, 



His Sermons. 615 

and he is wandering about the streets of Chicago a lost 
and ruined man. 

Take the rumseller. He laughs at these meetings, 
laughs at the Bible ; says there is no hell. I have a man 
in my mind whose place of business was the curse of a 
whole community. Fathers and mothers used to beg of 
him not to sell liquor to their sons, but he only laughed at 
them. He had a son of his own, of whom he fairly made 
an idol, and that wretched young man, after coming to be 
a miserable drunkard, at last found life so hateful that he 
took a pistol and blew out his own brains. O, rumseller, 
you who ruin other men's sons, there is a time coming 
when you will reap what you have sowed ! You think 
you are safe from the law of man, but God, the God of 
equity, has a law from which you cannot escape. You 
ruin the sons of other men, and your sons will be ruined, 
and you, like this rumseller, will have a miserable end. 

Take the fashionable smooth-tongued libertine ; your 
time is coming by and by. If a woman falls she is thrust 
out of society, while these oily-tongued villainous men are 
praised and flattered. But there is a God who will judge 
you, and you will find out soon enough that " the way of 
the transgressor is hard." 

The other night I read a letter from a broken-hearted 
woman asking me to pray for her husband, who had com- 
mitted a forgery, and had fled from his home for fear of 
the penalty of the law. Up in the gallery he sat while I 
read that sorrowful letter, and after the meeting was over 
he came to me and confessed his sin. I never pitied a man 
so in all my life. We prayed together, and the next night 
he came again, saying, " I feel as if Jesus had forgiven my 
sin , but I am not my own ; I belong to the law. I have 
made up my mind to go home and give myself up to the 
officers of justice, and I suppose they will send me to prison 



616 Dwight L. Moody: 

for ten years. And now won't you pray for my poor family 
whose hearts I have broken, and from whom I must be 
separated by my punishment and disgrace ? " 

Ah, my friends, that man didn't find it easy to fight 
against God. It is a thousand times harder to serve the 
devil than to serve the Lord. 

Now all at once we find a great change coming over this 
man Saul. A few minutes before he was breathing out 
threatenings and slaughter, and pushing on to Damascus 
to hunt out and punish the followers of the Galilean prophet ; 
but now, after this great light has shined round about him, 
he falls down to the ground, and with a very humble voice 
he says, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " 

Any of you who don't believe in sudden conversions 
had better read this ninth chapter of the Acts of the 
Apostles and find out how long it took to convert Saul 
of Tarsus. 

Now he rises from the earth and goes on his journey, 
but for an altogether different purpose. I suppose that 
Ananias was one of the very men whom he was going to 
hunt out and bring to punishment; now, by the com- 
mandment of the Lord, whom he had so terribly hated but 
half an hour ago, he pushes on for Damascus, and that 
same Ananias is sent to open his eyes. It may be Ananias 
was rather doubtful about going to this man — perhaps he 
didn't believe in sudden conversions either — but the Lord 
had told him to go, and when he went he found Saul had 
become an inquirer. 

What a curious experience it must have been for that 
raging persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, to go staggering along 
in his blindness, led like a little child to Damascus. Now 
Ananias speaks to this terrible man and says, " Brother 
Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the 
way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest re- 



His Sermons. 617 

ceive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost," and 
immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales, 
and he received sight forthwith ; and straightway, the 
account goes on to tell us, he preached Christ in the syna- 
gogues, that he is the Son of God. 

How amazed those Damascus Christians must have 
been to hear this man preaching the Gospel of Christ, and 
confounding the Jews who did not believe in Jesus, I 
suppose they had received letters from their brethren in 
Jerusalem telling them to look out, for the terrible Saul 
of Tarsus was coming down to make trouble for them. 
Perhaps they had some prayer-meetings while he was on 
the road, to ask the Lord to save them from the hands 
of this terrible persecutor of the church, and when he comes, 
behold he is on their side ! 

Some time afterward Saul goes up to Jerusalem. At first 
the brethren there didn't have any faith in him, but after 
awhile Barnabas takes him and introduces him, and tells 
them all about how he had been converted ; and after awhile 
they receive him as one of their company, and from this 
time he is one of the very foremost men in defending the 
church he used to despise. Before long we hear of him 
suffering persecution for the sake of the Lord Jesus. He 
starts out on a preaching tour, and pretty soon we hear 
of him in the Philippian jail. 

Now what a terrible commotion there would be if some 
one of the Christians of these days should be scourged and 
thrust into prison for being a disciple of the Lord Jesus ! 

O, Saul, you don't find it so easy to preach the Gospel 
after all. Now see the trouble you are in. What are you 
going to do about it? 

" Do ? This one thing I do, forgetting those things 
which are behind, ... I press forward toward the mark 
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
41 



618 Dwight L. Moody: 

They take him and stone him, and leave him for dead; 
but after the mob has all gone away, I seem to see this 
Paul coming to himself, sitting up and rubbing his eyes; 
after a little he realizes the situation, and stands up and 
leans against the city wall, and looks about him. 

Now, Paul, haven't you had enough of it? This preach- 
ing the Gospel is no easy matter; what are you going to 
do now? 

" Do ? " says the man, with the blood running down all 
over his face, " This one thing I do, forgetting those things 
which are behind, ... I press toward the mark for the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

Not long afterward the Jews get hold of him and scourge 
him. 

Do you know what that Roman scourge was? Well, I 
will tell you. The Roman scourge was made by braiding 
little pieces of sharp steel in the lash of a whip, and this 
they used on the bare back. 

Poor man ! I seem to see him standing there bending 
over to receive the terrible scourge. A stout Roman 
soldier stands over him, and swings the steel-braided lash, 
bringing it down on his quivering flesh. 

What an outcry there would be if any of us received 
one such stroke as that; but Paul receives forty such 
stripes, save one, and when they lead him away the little 
man is nearly dead with pain and loss of blood. 

Ah, Paul, this is hard work, preaching the Gospel ! 
What are you going to do now? 

" Do ? " " This one thing I do : forgetting those things 
which are behind, ... I press toward the mark for the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

There is a man for you ! Stoning, and scourgings, and 
prisons, were all the same to him, so that he might win 
Christ. 



His Sermons. 619 

The last we see of him is in that prison in Rome. In 
a few days he is to be led out to execution. Nero has 
condemned him to death. So he takes a piece of paper 
and writes a letter to his son Timothy : — 

" Good-bye, Timothy. Keep on preaching ; preach the 
word; hold fast that whereunto thou hast attained. As 
for me, I have finished my course; I have kept the faith; 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
ness, which the Lord shall give me in that day." 

In a few days afterward they take him out to the place 
of execution ; the ax falls on his' neck, and his head rolls 
down in the dust. But there is one of the Lord's chariots 
waiting for his soul ; and now that he is delivered from his 
poor little aching body, he leaps into it and sweeps upward 
through the sky, and into the gates of the New Jerusa- 
lem. 

There are a great many people who know him there, 
and through all these eighteen hundred years there are 
souls coming up to glory and giving him new joy over the 
work which he did for Christ. 

" Paul, I thank you for that Epistle to the Romans," 
says one ; " it was the means of bringing me to Christ." 

" Paul, I thank you for that sermon on Mars' Hill," says 
another ; " that saved me from my worship of the unknown 
God." 

" Paul, I thank you for that Epistle to the Corinthians ; 
it gave me victory over the grave." 

" Paul, I thank you for that Epistle to the Thessalonians ; 
it showed me that the Lord who was gone away would 
sometime come back again." 

Ah, this Saul of Tarsus, this preacher of righteousness, 
so often rejected, is a great man in heaven now. Talk 
about Alexander shaking the world with his armies : this 
little tent-maker of Tarsus shook the world without any 
armies. 



620 Dwight L. Moody: 

It was a wise thing for him to count all things but 
loss for the excellency of Christ Jesus his Lord. Didn't 
he say that chastening afterward yieldeth the peace- 
able fruits of righteousness unto them that are exercised 
thereby? Didn't he tell us to rejoice evermore, and, like 
David, do you not think he was satisfied when he awoke 
in the likeness of his Lord? 



HIS ANECDOTES, 



HIS ANECDOTES. 



BECKONING OF AN ANGEL HAND. 

I remember a number of years ago I went out of Chicago 
to try to preach. I went down to a little town where was 
being held a Sunday-school convention. I was a perfect 
stranger in the place, and when I arrived a man stepped up 
to me and asked me if my name was Moody. I told him 
it was, and he invited me to his house. When I got there 
he said he had to go to the convention, and asked me to 
excuse his wife, as she, not having a servant, had to attend 
to her household duties. He put me into the parlor, and 
told me to amuse myself as best I could till he came back. 
I sat there, but the room was dark, and I could not read, 
and I got tired. So I thought I would try and get the 
children and play with them. I listened for some sound 
of childhood in the house, but could not hear a single 
evidence of the presence of little ones. When my friend 
came back I said : " Haven't you any children ? " " Yes," 
he replied, " I have one, but she's in Heaven, and I am 
glad she is there, Moody." "Are you glad that your child's 
dead ? " I inquired. 

He went on to tell me how he had worshipped that child ; 
how his whole life had been bound up in her to the neglect 
of his Saviour. One day he had come home and found her 
dying. Upon her death he accused God of being unjust. 
He saw some of his neighbors with their children around 
them. Wriy hadn't He taken some of them away? He 
was rebellious. After he came home from her funeral he 
said: "All at once I thought I heard her little voice call- 

[623] 



624 Dwight L. Moody: 

ing me, but the truth came to my heart that she was gone. 
Then I thought I heard her feet upon the stairs ; but I 
knew she was lying in the grave. The thought of her loss 
almost made me mad. I threw myself on my bed and wept 
bitterly. I fell asleep, and while I slept I had a dream, 
but it almost seemed to me like a vision. 

" I thought I was going over a barren field, and I came 
to a river so dark and chill-looking that I was going to 
turn away, when all at once I saw on the opposite bank the 
most beautiful sight I ever looked at. I thought death and 
sorrow could never enter into that lovely region. Then I 
began to see beings all so happy looking, and among them 
I saw my little child. She waved her little angel hand to 
me and cried, ' Father, father, come this way.' I thought 
her voice sounded much sweeter than it did on earth. In 
my dream I thought I went to the water and tried to cross 
it, but found it deep and the current so rapid that I thought 
if I entered it would carry me away from her forever. I 
tried to find a boatman to take me over, but couldn't, and 
I walked up and down the river trying to find a crossing, 
and still she cried : ' Come this way.' All at once I heard 
a voice come rolling down, ' I am the way, the truth, and 
the life ; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.' The 
voice awoke me from my sleep, and I knew it was my 
Saviour calling me, and pointing the way for me to reach 
my darling child. 

" I am now superintendent of a Sunday-school ; I have 
made many converts ; my wife has been converted, and we 
will, through Jesus as the way, see one day our child " 

ASSURANCE. 

A person came to me some time ago and said : " Mr. 
Moody, I wish you would give me a book that preaches 
assurance, and that tells the children of God it is their 



His Anecdotes. 625 

privilege to know they are accepted." I said, " Here is a 
book; it is very orthodox. It was written by John, the 
most intimate friend of Jesus while He was on earth. The 
man who laid his head upon His bosom." Turn to John 
and see what he says in the 5th chapter, " For in them ye 
have eternal life." 

" HATH EVERLASTING LIFE." 

There is no doubt about assurance in the Word of God. 
A person said to me some time ago : " I think it is a great 
presumption for a person to say she is saved." I asked 
her if she was saved. " I belong to a church," she sobbed. 
" But are you saved? " " I believe it would be presumption 
in me to say that I was saved." " Well I think it is a 
greater presumption for any one to say : ' I don't know if 
I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,' because it is written, 
' He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.' " It is 
clearly stated that we have assurance. 

GOD CAN TAKE AWAY THE APPETITE FOR 
DRINK. 

" There lives right here, in Providence, a drunkard — 
in fact, he called upon me this morning, and had a talk 
with me. He has been a drunkard a good many years ; 
he has got a wife ; he has got a child twelve years old, 
and he hasn't seen that child for five years. He looked as 
though he might be an ornament to society if it wasn't 
for that cursed enemy of man, strong drink. And he came 
up to my room, and wanted to know, with tears in his 
eyes, if there was any hope for him. Somebody had told 
him that God could take away this appetite, and he looked 
me right in the eye, and said, ' Do you believe that?' and 
I said, ' Thank God, I believe it ; I know it ; I have seen 



626 Dwight L. Moody: 

thousands of men like this, and they have been born again, 
and God has taken away from them the appetite for strong 
drink, and kept them for years and years.' And the poor 
man wept for joy. I said, ' Have you any friends ? ' ' No, 
sir,' he said ; ' My friends have all left me.' Poor man ! 
He wasn't a friend to himself, even. I had some friends 
with me, and we prayed, and after we had prayed the poor 
man broke out in agony, asking for help. I don't know that 
that man will be converted to-day, but he can be." 

A MOTHER'S BURDEN. 

I remember a mother coming to me and saying, " It is 
easy enough for you to speak in that way; if you had the 
burden that I've got, you couldn't cast it on the Lord." 
" Why, is your burden so great that Christ can't carry it ? " 
I asked. " No : it isn't too great for Him to carry ; but I 
can't put it on Him." " That is your fault," I replied; and 
I find a great many people with burdens who, rather than 
just come to Him with them, strap them tighter on their 
backs and go away struggling under their load. I asked 
her the nature of her trouble, and she told me. " I have an 
only boy who is a wanderer on the face of the earth. I 
don't know where he is. If I only knew where he was I 
would go around the world to find him. You don't know 
how I love that boy. This sorrow is killing me." " Why 
can't you take him to Christ? You can reach Him at the 
throne, even though he be at the uttermost part of the 
world. Go tell God all about your trouble, and he will 
take away his sin, and not only that, but if you never see 
him on earth, God can give you faith that you will see 
your boy in heaven." And then I told her of a mother who 
lived down in the southern part of Indiana. Some years 
ago her boy came up to this city. He was a moralist. My 
friends, a man has to have more than morality to lean 



His Anecdotes. 62.J 

upon in this great city. He hadn't been here long before 
he was led astray. A neighbor happened to come up here 
and found him one night in the streets drunk. 

When that neighbor went home, at first he thought he . 
wouldn't say anything about it to the boy's father, but ; 
afterward he thought it was his duty to tell him. So in a 
crowd in the street of their little town he just took the 
father aside, and told him what he had seen in Chicago. 
It was a terrible blow. When the children had been put to 
bed that night he said to his wife, " Wife, I have bad news ; 
have heard from Chicago to-day." The mother dropped 
her work in an instant and said : " Tell me what it is." 
" Well, our son has been seen on the streets of Chicago, 
drunk." Neither of them slept that night, but they took 
their burden to Christ, and about daylight the mother said : 
" I don't know how, I don't know when or where, but God 
has given me faith to believe that our son will be saved and 
will never come to a drunkard's grave." 

One week after, that boy left Chicago. He couldn't 
tell why — an unseen power seemed to lead him to his 
mother's home, and the first thing he said on coming over 
the threshold was, " Mother, I have come home to ask you 
to pray for me ; " and soon after he came back to Chicago 
a bright and shining light. If you have a burden like 
this, fathers, mothers, bring it to Him and cast it on Him, 
and He, the Great Physician, will heal your broken hearts. 

GIVING HER LIFE FOR HER BOY. 

When the California gold fever broke out, a man went 
there, leaving his wile in New England with his boy. As 
soon as he got on and was successful he was to send for 
them. It was a long time before he succeeded, but at last 
he got money enough to send for them. The wife's heart 



628 Dwight L. Moody: 

leaped for joy. She took her boy to New York, got on 
board a Pacific steamer, and sailed away to San Francisco. 
They had not been long at sea before the cry of " Fire ! 
fire ! " rang through the ship, and rapidly it gained on them. 
There was a powder magazine on board, and the captain 
knew the moment the fire reached the powder, every man, 
woman, and child must perish. They got out the life-boats, 
but they were too small ! In a minute they were over- 
crowded. The last one was just pushing away, when the 
mother pled with them to take her and her boy. " No," 
they said, " we have got as many as we can hold." She 
entreated them so earnestly, that at last they said they 
would take one more. Do you think she leaped into that 
boat and left her boy to die ? No ! She seized her boy, 
gave him one last hug, kissed him, and dropped him over 
into the boat. " My boy," she said, " if you live to see your 
father, tell him that I died in your place." That is a faint 
type of what Christ has done for us. He laid down his life 
for us. He died that we might live. Now will you not love 
Him ? What would you say of that young man if he should 
speak contemptuously of such a mother! She went down 
to a watery grave to save her son. Well, shall we speak 
contemptuously of such a Saviour? May God make us 
loyal to Christ ! My friends, you will need Him one day. 
You will need Him when you come to cross the swellings 
of Jordan. You will need Him when you stand at the 
bar of God. May God forbid that when death draws nigh 
it should find you making light of the precious blood of 
Christ ! 

THE REMEDY. 

Well, let me illustrate it then, and perhaps you will be 
able to understand it. Suppose I am dying with consump- 
tion, which I inherited from my father or mother. I did 



His Anecdotes. 629 

not get it by any fault of my own, by any neglect of my 
health; I inherited it, let us suppose. Well, I go to my 
physician, and to the best physicians, and they all give me 
up. They say I am incurable ; I must die ; I have not thirty 
days to live. Well, a friend happens to come along and 
looks at me and says : " Moody, you have got the consump- 
tion." " I know it very well ; I don't want any one to tell 
me that." " But," he says, " there is a remedy — a remedy, 
I tell you. Let me have your attention. I want to call 
your attention to it. I tell you there is a remedy." " But, 
sir, I don't believe it. I have tried the leading physicians 
in this country and in Europe, and they tell me there is no 
hope." " But you know me, Moody ; you have known me 
for years." " Yes, sir." " Do you think, then, I would tell 
you a falsehood?" " No." "Well, ten years ago I was 
far gone. I was given up by the physicians to die, but I 
took this medicine and it cured me. I am perfectly well — 
look at me." I say that it is a very strange case. " Yes, 
it may be strange, but it is a fact. That medicine cured 
me; take this medicine and it will cure you. Although it 
has cost me a great deal, it shall not cost you anything. 
Although the salvation of Jesus Christ is as free as the air, 
it cost God the richest jewel of heaven. He had to give his 
only Son ; give all He had ; He had only one Son, and He 
gave Him. Do not make light of it, then, I beg of you." 
" Well," I say, " I would like to believe you, but this is 
contrary to my reason." Hearing this, my friend goes away 
and brings another friend to me and he testifies to the 
same thing. He again goes away when I do not yet be- 
lieve, and brings in another, and another, and another, and 
they all testify to the same thing. They say they were as 
bad as myself; and they took the same medicine that has 
been offered to me, and it cured them. He then hands me 
the medicine. I clash it to the ground ; I do not believe in 



630 Dwight L. Moody: 

its saving power : I die. The reason is, then, that I spurned 
the remedy. 

So it will not be because Adam fell, but that you spurn 
the remedy offered to you to save you. You will have 
darkness rather than light. How, then, shall ye escape if 
ye neglect so great salvation? There is no hope for you 
if you neglect the remedy." 

TRUSTING. 

The other Sunday, when I was speaking on " Trust," 
a person came to me next day and said, " I want to tell 
you how I was saved. You remember you told about that 
lady who sought Christ three years and could not find 
Him, and when you told that, it was I. I was in that same 
condition and through your story I got light." I don't 
think I have ever told it but what somebody got light and 
life. I will tell it again, for I would go up and down the 
world telling it if I could get a convert. One night I was 
preaching, and happening to cast my eyes down during 
the sermon, I saw two eyes just riveted upon me. Every 
word that fell from my lips she just seemed to catch with 
her own lips, and I was very anxious to go down where 
she was. After the sermon I went to the pew and said, 
" My friend, are you a Christian?" " Oh, no," said she, 
" I wish I was. I have been seeking Christ three years and 
I cannot find Him." Said I, " Oh, there is a great mistake 
about that." Says she, " Do you think I am not in ear- 
nest? Do you think, sir, I have not been seeking Christ? " 
Said I, " I suppose you think you have, but Christ has 
been seeking you these twenty years, and it would not take 
an anxious sinner and an anxious Saviour three years to 
meet, and if you had been really seeking Him you would 
have found Him long before this." " What would you do, 



His Anecdotes. 631 

then?" Said I, "Do nothing, only believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." " Oh," said she, 
" I have heard that till my head swims. Everybody says, 
believe ! believe ! believe ! and I am none the wiser. I don't 
know what you mean by it." " Very well," said I, " I will 
drop the word; but just trust the Lord Jesus Christ to 
save." " If I say I trust Him, will He save me? " " No, 
you may do a thousand things ; but if you really trust Him, 
He will save you." " Well," said she, " I trust Him, but 
I don't feel any different." "Ah," said I, " I have found 
your difficulty. You have been hunting for feeling all these 
three years. You have not been looking for Christ." Says 
she, " Christians tell how much joy they have got." " But," 
said I, " you want Christian experience before you get one. 
Instead of trusting God, you are looking for Christian 
experience." Then I said: "Right here in this pew, just 
commit yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust Him, 
and you will be saved," and I held her right to that word 
" trust," which is the same as the word " believe " in the 
Old Testament. " You know what it is to trust a friend. 
Cannot you trust God as a friend? " She looked at me for 
five minutes, it seemed, and then said slowly : " Mr. Moody, 
I trust the Lord Jesus Christ this night to save my soul." 
Turning to the pastor of the church she took him by the 
hand and repeated the declaration. Turning to an elder 
in the church she said again the solemn words, and near 
the door, meeting another officer of the church, she re- 
peated for the fourth time, " I am trusting Jesus," and 
went home. The next night when I was preaching I saw 
her right in front of me, " Eternity " written in her eyes, 
her face lighted up, and when I asked inquirers to go into 
the other room she was the first to go in. I wondered 
at it, for I could see by her face that she was in the joy 
of the Lord. But when I got in I found her with her arms 



632 Dwight L. Moody: 

around a young lady's neck, and I heard her say, " It is only 
just trusting. I stumbled over it three years and found it 
all in trusting; " and the three weeks I was there she led 
more souls to Christ than anybody else. If I got a difficult 
case I would send it to her. Oh, my friends, won't you 
trust Him ? Let us put our trust in Him. 

SAVING THE DRUNKARD. 

A young man in one of our meetings in New York got 
up and thrilled the audience with his experience. " I want 
to tell you," he said, " that nine months ago a Christian 
came to my house and said he wanted me to become a 
Christian. He talked to me kindly and encouragingly, 
pointing out the error of my ways, and I became con- 
verted. I had been a hard drinker, but since that time I 
have not touched a drop of liquor. If any one had asked 
who the most hopeless man in town was they would have 
pointed to me." To-day this man is the superintendent of 
a Sabbath-school. Eleven years ago, when I went to Bos- 
ton, I had a cousin who wanted a little of my experience. 
I gave him all the help I could, and he became a Chris- 
tian. He did not know how near death was to him. He 
wrote to his brother and said : " I am very anxious to get 
your soul to Jesus." The letter somehow went to another 
city, and lay from the 28th of February till the 28th of 
March — just one month. He saw that it was his brother's 
handwriting, and tore it open and read the above words. 
It struck a chord in his heart, and was the means of con- 
verting him. And this was the Christian who led this 
drunken man to Christ. This young man had a neighbor 
who had drank for forty years, and he went to that neighbor 
and told him what God had done for him, and the result 
was another conversion. I tell you these things to en- 
courage you to believe that the drunkard can be saved, 



His Anecdotes. 633 

WHOSOEVER WILL. 

I can imagine some men saying, " Mr. Moody has not 
touched my case at all. That is not why I won't accept 
Christ. I don't know as I am one of the elect." How 
often I am met with this excuse — how often do I hear it in 
the inquiry room ! How many men fold their arms and 
say, " If I am one of the elect I will be saved, and if I 
ain't I won't. No use of your bothering about it." Why 
don't some of those merchants say, "If God is going to 
make me a successful merchant in Chicago I will be one 
whether I like it or not, and if he isn't I won't." If you are 
sick and a doctor prescribes for you, don't take the medi- 
cine, throw it out the door, it don't matter, for if God has 
decreed you are going to die, you will : if he hasn't you 
will get better. If you use that argument you may as well 
not walk home from this tabernacle. If God has said you'll 
get home — you'll fly through the air; if you have been 
elected to go home. I have an idea that the Lord Jesus 
saw how men were going to stumble over this doctrine, so 
after He had been thirty or forty years in heaven, He 
came down and spoke to John. One Lord's day in Patmos 
He said to him, " Write these things to the churches." 
John kept on writing. His pen flew very fast. And then 
the Lord, when it was nearly finished, said, " John, before 
you close the book, put in this : ' The Spirit and the Bride 
say Come ; and let him that heareth say, Come.' But there 
will be some that are deaf, and they cannot hear, so a^d, 
' Let him that is athirst, Come ; ' and in case there should 
be any that do not thirst, put it still broader, ' Whosoever 
will, let him take of the water of life freely.' ' What more 
can you have than that? And the book is sealed, as it were, 
with that. It is the last invitation in the Bible. " Who- 
soever will, let him take of the water of life freely." You 
42 



634 Dwight L. Moody: 

are thirsty. You want water. I hold out this glass to you, 
and say, " Take it." You say, " If I am decreed to have 
it, I am not going to put myself to the trouble of taking 
it." Well, you will never get it. And if you are ever to 
have salvation, you must reach out the hand and take it. 
" I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name 
of the Lord." 

WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME BEFORE. 

A few years ago, in a town somewhere in this State, a 
merchant died, and while he was lying a corpse I was told 
a story I will never forget. When the physician that at- 
tended him saw there was no chance for him here, he 
thought it would be time to talk about Christ to the dying 
man. And there are a great many Christians just like 
this physician. They wait till the man is just entering 
the other world, just till he is about nearing the throne, till 
the sands of life are about run out, till the death rattle is 
in his throat, before they commence to speak of Christ. 
The physician stepped up to the dying merchant and began 
to speak of Jesus, the beauties of Christianity, and the salva- 
tion he had offered to all the world. The merchant listened 
quietly to him, and then asked him, " How long have you 
known of these things ? " "I have been a Christian since 
I came from the East," he replied. " You have been a 
Christian so long and have known all this, and have been 
in my store every day. You have been in my house ; have 
associated with me; you knew all these things, and why 
didn't you tell me before ? " The doctor went home and 
retired to rest, but could not sleep. The question of the 
dying man rang in his ears. He could not explain why he 
had not spoken before, but he saw he had neglected his 
duty to his principles. He went back to his dying friend, 



His Anecdotes. 635 

intending to urge upon him the acceptance of Christ's salva- 
tion, but when he began to speak to him the merchant only 
replied in a sad whisper, " Oh, why didn't you tell me be- 
fore? " Oh, my friends, how many of us act like this physi- 
cian? If we don't practice in every particular the profes- 
sions we make, and try to influence the lives of others, and 
lead the lives of Christians according to Christian precept, 
the world will go on stumbling over us. 

" WHERE ART THOU?" 

I remember when preaching in New York city, at the 
Hippodrome, a man coming up to me and telling me a 
story that thrilled my soul. One night, he said he had 
been gambling; had gambled all the money away he had. 
When he went home to the hotel that night he did not 
sleep much. The next morning happened to be Sunday. 
He got up, felt bad, couldn't eat anything, didn't touch his 
breakfast, was miserable and thought about putting an end 
to his existence. That afternoon he took a walk up Broad- 
way, and when he came to the Hippodrome he saw great 
crowds going in and thought of entering too. But a police- 
man at the door told him he couldn't come in as it was a 
woman's meeting. He turned from it and strolled on ; 
came back to his hotel and had dinner. At night he walked 
up the street until he reached the Hippodrome again, and 
this time he saw a lot of men going in. When inside he 
listened to the singing and heard the text, " Where art 
thou? " and he thought he would go out. He rose to go, 
and the text came upon his ears again, " Where art thou ? " 
This was too personal, he thought ; it was disagreeable, and 
he made for the door, but as he got to the third row from 
the entrance, the words came to him again. " Where art 
thou ? " He stood still, for the question had come to him 



636 Dwight L. Moody: 

with irresistible force, and God had found him right there. 
He went to his hotel and prayed all that night, and now he 
is a bright and shining light. And this young man, who 
was a commercial traveler,- went back into the village in 
which he had been reared, and in which he had been one 
of the fastest young men — went back there, and went 
around among his friends and acquaintances and testified 
for Christ, as earnestly and beneficially for him as his con- 
duct had been against Him. 

A LITTLE CHILD LEADS AN INFIDEL TO 
CHRIST. 

I remember hearing of a Sabbath-school teacher who had 
led every one of her children to Christ. She was a faith- 
ful teacher. Then she tried to get her children to go out 
and bring other children into the school. One day one of 
them came and said she had been trying to get the children 
of a family to come to the school, but the father was an 
infidel man and he wouldn't allow it. " What is an infidel? " 
asked the child. She had never heard of an infidel before. 
The teacher went on to tell her what an infidel was, and 
she was perfectly shocked. A few mornings after the girl 
happened to be going past the post-office on her way to 
school, and she saw the infidel father coming out. She 
went up to him and said, " Why don't you love Jesus ? " 
If it had been a man who had said that to him probably 
he would have knocked him down. He looked at her and 
walked on. A second time she put the question, " Why 
don't you love Jesus? " He put out his hand to put her 
gently away from him, when, on looking down, he saw her 
tears. " Please, sir, tell me why you don't love Jesus ? " 
He pushed her aside and away he went. When he got to 
his office he couldn't get this question out of his mind. All 



His Anecdotes. 637 

the letters seemed to read, " Why don't you love Jesus? " 
All men in his place of business seemed to say, " Why don't 
you love Jesus ? " When he tried to write his pen seemed 
to shape the words, " Why don't you love Jesus ? " He 
couldn't rest, and on the street he went to mingle with the 
business-men, but he seemed to hear a voice continually ask- 
ing him, " Why don't you love Jesus? " He thought when 
night came and he got home with his family, he would for- 
get it ; but he couldn't. He complained that he wasn't well, 
and went to bed. But when he laid his head on the pillow 
that voice kept whispering, " Why don't you love Jesus? " 
He couldn't sleep. By and by, about midnight, he got 
up and said, " I will get a Bible and find where Christ con- 
tradicts himself, and then I'll have a reason," and he turned 
to the book of John. My friends, if you want a reason for 
not loving Christ, don't turn to John. He knew Him too 
long. I don't believe a man can read the gospel of John 
without being turned to Christ. Well, he read through, and 
found no reason why he shouldn't love Him, but he found 
many reasons why he should. He read this book, and 
before morning he was on his knees, and that question put 
by that little child led to his conversion. 

HIS ONLY SON. 

While I was attending a meeting in a certain city some- 
time ago a lady came to me and said : " I want you to go 
home with me ; I have something to say to you." When wc 
reached her home, there were some friends there. After 
they had retired, she put her arms on the table, and tears 
began to come in her eyes, but with an effort she repressed 
her emotion. After a struggle she went on to say that 
she was going to tell me something which she had never 
told any other living person. I should not tell it now, but 



638 Dwight L. Moody: 

she has gone to another world. She said she had a son in 
Chicago, and she was very anxious about him. When he 
was young he got interested in religion at the rooms of the 
Young Men's Christian Association. He used to go out 
in the streets and circulate tracts. He was her only son, 
and she was very ambitious that he should make a name 
in the world, and wanted him to get into the very highest 
circles. Oh, what a mistake people make about these high- 
est circles. Society is false ; it is a sham. She was deceived 
like a good many more votaries of fashion and hunters after 
wealth at the present time. S-he thought it was beneath her 
son to go down and associate with those young men who 
hadn't much money. She tried to get him away from 
them, but they had more influence than she had, and finally, 
to break his whole association, she packed him off to a 
boarding-school. He went soon to Yale College, and she 
supposed he got into one of those miserable secret societies 
there that have ruined so many young men, and the next 
thing she heard was that the boy had gone astray. 

She began to write letters urging him to come into the 
Kingdom of God, but she heard that he tore the letters up 
without reading them. She went to him to try and regain 
whatever influence she possessed over him, but her efforts 
were useless, and she came home with a broken heart. 
He left New Haven, and for two years they heard nothing 
of him. At last they heard he was in Chicago, and his 
father found him and gave him $30,000 to start in business. 
They thought it would change him, but it didn't. They 
asked me when I went back to Chicago to try and use my 
influence with him. I got a friend to invite him to his 
house one night, where I intended to meet him, but he 
heard I was to be there, and did not come near, like a 
good many other young men, who seemed to be afraid of 
me. I tried many times to reach him, but could not. While 



His Anecdotes. 639 

I was traveling one day on the New Haven Railroad, I 
bought a New York paper, and in it I saw a dispatch say- 
ing he had been drowned in Lake Michigan. His father 
came on to find his body, and, after considerable searching, 
they discovered it. All his clothes and his body were covered 
with sand. The body was taken home to that broken- 
hearted mother. She said " If I thought he was in heaven 
I would have peace." Her disobedience of God's law came 
back upon her. 

So my friends, if you have a boy impressed with the 
gospel, help him to come to Christ. Bring him in the arms 
of your faith, and He will unite you closer to him. 

A CONGREGATION OF THREE MILLIONS. 

I was at a meeting in London, when I was there, and I 
heard a man speaking with wonderful power and earnest- 
ness. " Who is that man ? " I asked, my curiosity being ex- 
cited. "Why, that is Dr. . He is blind." I felt some 

interest in this man, and at the close of the meeting, I sought 
an interview, and he told me that he had been stricken blind 
when very young. His mother took him to a doctor, and 
asked him about his sight. " You must give up all hope," 
the doctor said. " Your boy is blind, and will be forever." 
" What, do you think my boy will never see? " asked his 
mother. " Never again." The mother took her boy to her 
bosom and cried, " Oh, my boy, who will take care of you 
when I am gone? Who will look to you?" — forgetting 
the faithfulness of that God she had taught him to love. 
Lie became a servant of the Lord and was permitted to print 
the Bible in twelve different languages, printed in the raised 
letters, so that all the blind people could read the Scriptures 
themselves. He had a congregation, my friends, of three 
millions of people, and I think that blind man was one of 



640 Dwight L. Moody: 

the happiest beings in all London. He was naturally blind, 
but he had eyes to his soul, and could see a bright eternity 
in the future. He had built his foundation upon the living 
God. We pity those who have not their natural sight ; but 
how you should pity yourself if you are spiritually blind. 

WHEN RELIGION BECOMES A SHAM. 

I remember when in the old country a young man came 
to me — a minister — and said he wanted to talk with me. 
He said to me : " Mr. Moody you are either all right and I 
am all wrong, or else I am right, and you are all wrong." 
" Well, sir," said I, " you have the advantage of me. You 
have heard me preach, and know what doctrines I hold, 
whereas I have not heard you, and don't know what you 
preach." " Well," said he, " the difference between your 
preaching and mine is that you make out that salvation is 
got by Christ's death, and I make out that it is attained by 
His life." " Now, what do you do with the passages bear- 
ing upon the death ? " and I quoted the passages, " Without 
the shedding of blood there is no remission," and " He 
Himself bore our own sins by His own body on the tree," 
and asked him what he did with them, for instance. " Never 
preach them at all." I quoted a number of passages more, 
and he gave me the same answer. " Well, what do you 
preach?" I finally asked. " Moral essays," he replied. 
Said I, " Did you ever know anybody to be saved by that 
kind of thing, did you ever convert anybody by them ? " 
" I never aimed at that kind of conversion ; I meant to get 
men to heaven by culture — by refinement." " Well," said 
I, " if I didn't preach those texts, and only preached cul- 
ture, the whole thing would be a sham." "And it is a sham 
to me," was his reply. I tell you the moment a man breaks 
away from this doctrine of blood, religion becomes a sham, 



His Anecdotes. 641 

because the whole teaching of this book is of one story 

and this is, that Christ came into the world and died for 
our sins. 

" THEY LOVE A FELLOW OVER THERE." 

In our city a few years ago there was a little boy who 
went to one of the mission Sunday-schools. His father 
moved to another part of the city about five miles away, 
and every Sunday that boy came past thirty or forty Sun- 
day-schools to the one he attended. And one Sunday a 
lady who was out collecting scholars for a Sunday-school 
met him and asked why he went so far, past so many 
schools. " There are plenty of others," said she, " just as 
good." He said, " They may be as good, but they are not 
so good for me." " Why not? " she asked. " Because they 
love a fellow over there," he answered. Ah ! love won him. 
" Because they love a fellow over there ! " How easy it is 
to reach people through love ! Sunday-school teachers 
should win the affections of their scholars if they wish to 
lead them to Christ. 

ONE GREATER THAN A GOVERNOR. 

When I was East a few years ago, Mr. Geo. H. Stewart 
told me of a scene that occurred in a Pennsylvania prison, 
when Governor Pollock, a Christian man, was Governor of 
the State. A man was tried for murder, and the judge had 
pronounced sentence upon him. His friends had tried every 
means in their power to procure his pardon. They had sent 
deputation after deputation to the Governor, but he had 
told them all that the law must take its course. When they 
began to give up hope, the Governor went clown to the 
prison and asked the sheriff to take him to the cell of the 
condemned man. The Governor was conducted into the 



642 Dwight L. Moody: 

presence of the criminal, and he sat down by the side of 
his bed and began to talk to him kindly — spoke to him of 
Christ and heaven, and showed him that although he was 
condemned to die on the morrow by earthly judges, he 
would receive eternal life from the Divine Judge if he would 
accept salvation. He explained the plan of salvation, and 
when he left him he committed him to God. When he 
was gone the sheriff was called to the cell by the condemned 
man. "Who was that man?" asked the criminal, "who 
was in here and talked so kind to me? " " Why," said the 
sheriff, " that was Governor Pollock." " Was that Gov- 
ernor Pollock? O, Sheriff, why didn't you tell me who it 
was? If I had known that was him, I wouldn't have let 
him go out till he had given me pardon. The Governor 
has been here — in my cell — and I didn't know it," and the 
man wrung his hands and wept bitterly. My friends, there 
is one greater than a Governor here to-night. He sent 
His Son to redeem you — to bring you out of the prison 
home of sin. I come to-night to tell you He is here. 

FALLEN AMONG THIEVES. 

A number of years ago, before any railway came into 
Chicago, they used to bring in the grain from the Western 
prairies in wagons for hundreds of miles, so as to have it 
shipped off by the lakes. There was a father who had a 
large farm out there, and who used to preach the gospel as 
well as to attend to his farm. One day, when church busi- 
ness engaged him, he sent his son to Chicago with grain. 
He waited and waited for his boy to return, but he did not 
come home. At last he could wait no longer, so he saddled 
his horse, and rode to the place where his son had sold the 
grain. He found that he had been there and got the money 
for his grain; then he began to fear that his boy had been 
murdered and robbed. At last, with the aid of a detective, 



His Anecdotes. 643 

they tracked him to a gambling den, where they found tha^ 
he had gambled away the whole of his money. In hopes of 
winning it back again, he then had sold his team, and lost 
that money too. He had fallen among thieves, and like the 
man who was going to Jericho, they stripped him, and then 
they cared no more about him. What could he do? He 
was ashamed to go home to meet his father, and he fled. 
The father knew what it all meant. He knew the boy 
thought he would be very angry with him. He was grieved 
to think that his boy should have such feelings toward him. 
That is just exactly like the sinner. He thinks because he 
has sinned, God will have nothing to do with him. Bui; 
what did that father do ? Did he say," Let the boy go" ? No ; 
he went after him. He arranged his business, and started 
after the boy. That man went from town to town, from 
city to city. He would get the ministers to let him preach, 
and at the close he would tell his story. " I have got a boy 
who is a wanderer on the face of the earth somewhere." 
He would describe his boy, and say, " If you ever hear of 
him or see him, will you not write to me ? " At last he 
found that he had gone to California, thousands of miles 
away. Did that father say, " Let him go " ? No ; off he 
went to the Pacific coast, seeking the boy. He went to 
San Francisco, and advertised in the newspapers that he 
would preach at such a church on such a day. When he 
had preached he told his story, in hopes that the boy 
might have seen the advertisement and come to the church. 
When he had d^ne, away under the gallery, there was a 
young man who waited until the audience had gone out; 
then he came toward the pulpit. The father looked and 
saw it was that boy, and he ran to him, and pressed him 
to his bosom. The boy wanted to confess what he had 
done, but not a word would the father hear. He forgave 
him freely, and took him to his home once more. 



644 Dwight L. Moody: 

I tell you Christ will welcome you this minute if you will 
come. Say, " I will arise and go to my Father." May God 
incline you to take this step. There is not one whom 
Jesus has not sought far longer than that fatheV. There 
has not been a day since you left Him but He has followed 
you. 

" BECAUSE THAT'S ME." ; . 

While we were in London, Mr. Spurgeon one day took 
Mr. Sankey and myself to his orphan asylum, and he was 
telling about them — that some of them had aunts and some 
cousins, and that every boy had some friend that took an 
interest in him, and came to see him and gave him a little 
pocket money, and one day he said while he stood there, 
a little boy came up to him and said, " Mr. Spurgeon, let 
me speak to you," and the boy sat down between Mr. 
Spurgeon and the elder, who was with the clergyman, and 
said, " Mr. Spurgeon, suppose your father and mother 
were dead, and you didn't have any cousins, or aunts, or 
uncles, or friends to come and give you pocket money, and 
give you presents, don't you think you would feel bad — 
because that's me ? " Said Mr. Spurgeon, " the minute he 
asked that, I put my right hand down into my pocket and 
took out the money." Because that's me ! And so with the 
Gospel , we must say to those who have sinned, the Gospel 
is offered to them. 

" COULDN'T DO IT." 

At one time my sister had trouble with her little boy, 

^nd the father said, " Why, Sammy, you must go now and 

ask your mother's forgiveness." The little fellow said he 

wouldn't. The father says, " You must. If you don't go 

and ask your mother's forgiveness I shall have to undress 



His Anecdotes. 645 

you and put you to bed." He was a bright, nervous little 
fellow, never still a moment, and the father thought he 
would have such a dread of being undressed and put to bed. 
But the little fellow wouldn't, so they undressed him and put 
him to bed. The father went to his business, and when he 
came home at noon he said to his wife : " Has Sammy asked 
your forgiveness? " " No," she said, " he hasn't." So the 
father went to him and said, " Why, Sammy, why don't you 
ask your mother's forgiveness? " The little fellow shook his 
head, " Won't do it." " But, Sammy, you have got to." 
" Couldn't." The father went down to his office, and stayed 
all the afternoon, and when he came home he asked his 
wife, " Has Sammy asked your forgiveness ? " " No, I 
took something up to him and tried to have him eat, but 
he wouldn't." So the father went up to see him, and said, 
" Now, Sammy, just ask your mother's forgiveness, and you 
may be dressed and come down to supper with us." 
" Couldn't do it." The father coaxed, but the little fellow 
" couldn't do it." That was all they could get out of him. 
You know very well he could, but he didn't want to. Now, 
the hardest thing a man has to do is to become a Chris- 
tian, and it is the easiest. That may seem a contradiction, 
but it isn't. The hard point is because he don't want to. 

The hardest thing for a man to do is to give up his will. 
That night they retired, and they thought surely early in 
the morning he will be ready to ask his mother's forgive- 
ness. The father went to him — that was Friday morning. — 
to see if he was ready to ask his mother's forgiveness, but 
he " couldn't." The father and mother felt so bad about 
it they couldn't eat ; they thought it was to darken their 
whole life. Perhaps that boy thought that father and 
mother didn't love him. Just what many sinners think 
because God won't let them have their own way. The 
father went to his business, and when he came home he 



646 Dwight L Moody: 

said to his wife, " Has Sammy asked your forgiveness ? " 
" No." So he went to the little fellow and said, " Now, 
Sammy, are you not going to ask your mother's forgive- 
ness ? " " Can't," and that was all they could get out of 
him. The father couldn't eat any dinner; it was like death 
in the house. It seemed as if the boy was going to conquer 
his father and mother. Instead of his little will being broken, 
it looked very much as if he was going to break theirs. 
Late Friday afternoon, " M'other, mother, forgive," says 
Sammy — " me." And as the little fellow said " me," he 
sprang to his feet and said : " I have said it, I have said 
it. Now dress me, and take me down to see father. He 
will be so glad to know I have said it." And she took him 
down, and when the little fellow came in he said, " I've 
said it, I've said it." 

Oh, my friends, it is so easy to say, " I will arise and go 
to my God." It is the most reasonable thing you can do. 
Isn't it an unreasonable thing to hold out? Come right 
to God just this very hour. " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ and thou shalt be saved." 

PAPA'S FRIEND. 

A gentleman one day came to my office for the purpose 
of getting me interested in a young man who had just got 
out of the penitentiary. " He says," said the gentleman, 
" he don't want to go to the office, but I want your per- 
mission to bring him in and introduce him." I said, " Bring 
him in." The gentleman brought him in and introduced 
him, and I took him by the hand and told him I was glad 
to see him. I invited him up to my house, and when I 
took him into my family I introduced him as a friend. 
When my little daughter came into the room, I said, 
" Emma, this is papa's friend." And she went up and 
kissed him, and the man sobbed aloud. After the child 



His Anecdotes. 647 

left the room, I said, "What is the matter?" " O, sir," 
he said, " I have not had a kiss for years. The last kiss I 
had was from my mother, and she was dying. I thought I 
would never have another one again." His heart was 
broken. 

OVER THE MOUNTAINS. 

A lady had a little child that was dying. She thought it 
was resting sweetly in the arms of Jesus. She went into 
the room and the child asked her : " What are those clouds 
and mountains that I see so dark ? " " Why, Eddy," said 
his mother, " there are no clouds or mountains, you must 
be mistaken." " Why, yes, I see great mountains and dark 
clouds, and I want you to take me in your arms and carry 
me over the mountains." "Ah," said the mother, " you 
must pray to Jesus, He will carry you safely," and, my 
friends, the sainted mother, the praying wife, may come to 
your bedside and wipe the damp sweat from your brow, 
but they cannot carry you over the Jordan when the hour 
comes. This mother said to her little boy, " I am afraid that 
it is unbelief that is coming upon you, my child, and you 
must pray that the Lord will be with you in your dying 
moments." And the two prayed, but the boy turned to 
her and said : " Don't you hear the angels, mother, over the 
mountains, and calling for me, and I cannot go ? " " My 
dear boy, pray to Jesus, and He will come; He only can 
take you." And the boy closed his eyes and prayed, and 
when he opened them a heavenly smile overspread his 
face as he said, " Jesus has come to carry me over the 
mountains." 

Dear sinner, Jesus is ready and willing to carry you over 
the mountains of sin, and over your mountains of unbelief. 
Give yourself to Him. 



648 Dwight L. Moody: 

OVER A PRECIPICE. 

There is a little story that has gone the round of the 
American press that made a great impression upon me as 
a father. A father took his little child out into the field 
one Sabbath, and, it being a hot day, he lay down under a 
beautiful shady tree. The little child ran about gathering 
wild flowers and little blades of grass, and coming to its 
father and saying, " Pretty ! pretty ! " At last the father fell 
asleep, and while he was sleeping the little child wandered 
away. When he awoke, his first thought was, " Where is 
my child?" He looked all around, but he could not see 
him. He shouted at the top of his voice, but all he heard 
was the echo of his own voice. Running to a little hill, he 
looked around and shouted again. No response ! Then 
going to a precipice at some distance, he looked down, and 
there, upon the rocks and briers, he saw the mangled form 
of his loved child. He rushed to the spot, took up the life- 
less corpse, and hugged it to his bosom, and accused him- 
self of being the murderer of his child. While he was 
sleeping his child had wandered over the precipice. I 
thought as I heard that, what a picture of the church of 
God! 

How many fathers and mothers, how many Christian 
men, are sleeping now while their children wander over the 
terrible precipice right into the bottomless pit. Father, 
where is your boy to-night? 

THE SURE ARROW. 

I remember while preaching in Glasgow, an incident oc- 
curred which I will relate. I had been preaching thete sev- 
eral weeks, and the night was my last one, and I pleaded 
with them as I had never pleaded there before. I urged the 



His Anecdotes. 649 

people to meet me in that land. It is a very solemn thing 
to stand before a vast audience for the last time and think 
you may never have another chance of asking them to 
come to Christ. I told them I would not have another op- 
portunity, and urged them to accept, and just asked them 
to meet me at that marriage supper. At the conclusion I 
soon saw a tall young lady coming into the inquiry room. 
She had scarcely come in when another tall young lady 
came in, and she went up to the first and put her arms 
around her and wept. Pretty soon another young lady 
came and went up to the first two and just put her arms 
around both of them. They were three sisters and I found 
that although they had been sitting in different parts of the 
building, the sure arrow of conviction went down to their 
souls, and brought them to the- inquiry room. Another 
young lady came down from the gallery and said : " Mr. 
Moody, I want to become a Christian." I asked a young 
Christian to talk to her, and when she went home that night 
about 10 o'clock— her mother was sitting up for her — she 
said : " Mother, I have accepted the invitation to be present 
at the marriage supper of the Lamb." Her mother and 
father laid awake that night talking about the salvation of 
their child. That was Friday night, and next day (Satur- 
day) she was unwell, and before long her sickness developed 
into scarlet fever, and a few days after I got this letter : 

" Mr. Moody — Dear Sir : It is now my painful duty to 
intimate to you that the dear girl concerning whom I wrote 
to you on Monday, has been taken away from us by death. 
Her departure, however, has been signally softened to us, 
for she told us yesterday she was ' going home to be with 
Jesus,' and after giving messages to many, told us to let 
Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey know that she died a happy 
Christian." 



43 



650 Dwight L. Moody: 

AFRAID OF EACH OTHER. 

I heard a story about two young men who came to New 
York city from the country on a visit. They went to the 
same boarding-house to stay and took a room together. 
Well, when they came to go to bed each felt ashamed to go 
down on his knees before his companion first. So they sat 
watching each other. In fact, to express the situation in 
one word, they were both cowards — yes, cowards ! But 
at last one of them mustered up a little courage, and with 
burning blushes, as if he was about to do something wrong 
and wicked, he sunk down on his knees to say his prayers. 
As soon as the second saw that, he also knelt. And then, 
after they had said their prayers, each waited for the other 
to get up. When they did manage to get up one said to the 
other : " I really am glad to see that you knelt ; I was afraid 
of you." " Well," said the other, " and I was afraid of you." 
So it turned out that both were Christians, and yet they 
were afraid of each other. You smile at that, but how many 
times have you done the same thing — perhaps not in that 
way, but the same thing in effect. Henceforth, then, be not 
ashamed, but let every one know you are His. 

CONFESSING CHRIST. 

When I was in Ireland I heard of a man who got great 
blessings from God. He was a business man — a landed 
proprietor. He had a large family, and a great many men 
to work for him taking care of his home. He came up to 
Dublin and there he found Christ. And he came boldly 
out and thought he would go home and confess Him. He 
thought that if Christ had redeemed him with his precious 
blood, the least he could do would be to confess Him, and 
tell about it sometimes. So~he called his family together 



His Anecdotes. 651 

and his servants, and with tears running down his cheeks 
he poured out his soul to them, and told them what Christ 
had done for him. He took the Bible down from its rest- 
ing-place and read a few verses of gospel. Then he went 
down on his knees to pray, and so greatly was the little 
gathering blessed that four or five out of that family were 
convicted of sin; they forsook the ways of the world, and 
accepted Christ and eternal life. It was like unto the house- 
hold of Cornelius, which experienced the working of the 
Holy Spirit. And that man and his family were not afraid 
to follow out their profession. 

REPRODUCING ONESELF. 

I was very much interested some time ago in a young 
lady that lived in the city. I don't know her name, or I 
have forgotten it. She was about to go to China as the 
wife of a missionary on his way to some heathen field. She 
had a large Sabbath-school class in the city and succeeded 
in getting a blessing upon many of her scholars through 
her efforts. She was very anxious to get some one who 
would look after her little flock and take care of them while 
she was gone. She had a brother who was not a Christian, 
and her heart was set on his being converted and taking her 
place as leader of the class. The young man — perhaps he 
is in this audience to-day — refused to accept of Christ, but 
away in her closet alone she pleaded with God that her 
brother might be converted and take her place. She wanted 
to reproduce herself and that is what every Christian ought 
to do — get somebody else converted to take up your work. 
Well, the last morning came, and around the family altar 
as the moment drew near for the lady's departure, and they 
did not know when they should see her again, the father 
broke down, and the boy went up stairs. Just before she 
left for the train the boy came down, and putting his arms 



652 Dwight L. Moody: 

around his sister's neck, said to her, " My dear sister, I 
will take your Saviour for mine, and I will take care of your 
class for you," and the young man took her class, and the 
last I heard of him he was filling her place. There was a 
young lady established in good work. 

NEVER DISCOURAGED. 

An old woman who was seventy-five years old had a 
Sabbath-school two miles away among the mountains. One 
Sunday there came a terrible storm of rain, and she thought 
at first she would not go that day, but then she thought, 
" What if some one should go and not find me there ? " 
Then she put on her waterproof, and took her umbrella 
and overshoes, and away she went through the storm, two 
miles away, to the Sabbath-school in the mountains. When 
she got there she found one solitary young man, and taught 
him the best she knew how all the afternoon. She never 
saw him again, and I don't know but the old woman 
thought her Sabbath-school had been a failure. That week 
the young man enlisted in the army, and in a year or two 
after the old woman got a letter from the soldier thank- 
ing her for going through the storm that Sunday. This 
young man thought that stormy day he would just go and 
see if the old woman was in earnest, and if she cared enough 
about souls to go through the rain. He found she came 
and taught him as carefully as if she was teaching the whole 
school, and God made that the occasion of winning the 
young man to Christ. When he lay dying in a hospital he 
sent the message to the old woman that he would meet 
her in heaven. Was it not a glorious thing that she did not 
get discouraged because she had but one Sunday-school 
scholar? Be willing to work with one. 



His Anecdotes. 653 

A GUILTY CONSCIENCE NEEDS NO ACCUSER. 

I remember while in Philadelphia, a man with his wife 
came to our meetings. When he went out he wouldn't 
speak to his wife. She thought it was very queer, but said 
nothing, and went to bed thinking that in the morning he 
would be all right. At breakfast, however, he would not 
speak a word. Well, she thought this strange, but she was 
sure he would have got all over whatever was wrong with 
him by dinner. The dinner hour arrived, and it passed 
away without his saying a word. At supper not a word 
escaped him, and he would not go with her to the meeting. 
Every day for a whole week the same thing went on. But 
at the end of the week he could not stand it any longer, 
and he said to his wife : " Why did you go and write to Mr. 
Moody and tell him all about me ? " " I never wrote to 
Mr. Moody in my life," said the wife. " You did," he 
answered. " You're mistaken; why do you think that?" 
" Well, then, I wronged you ; but when I saw Mr. Moody 
picking me out among all those people, and telling all about 
me, I was sure you must have written to him." It was the 
Son of Man seeking for him, my friends, and I hope there 
will be a man here to-night — that man in the gallery yon- 
der, that one before me — who will feel that I am talking 
personally to him. May you feel that you are lost, and that 
the Lord is seeking for you, and when you feel this there 
is some chance of your being saved. 

WAITING ON GOD. 

In one of the towns of England there is a beautiful little 
chapel, and a very touching story is told in connection 
with it. It was built by an infidel. He had a praying wife, 
but he would not listen to her; would not allow her pastor 



654 Dwight L. Moody: 

even to take dinner with them ; would not look at the Bible ; 
would not allow religion even to be talked of. She made 
up her mind, seeing she could not influence him by her 
voice, that every day she would pray to God at twelve 
o'clock for his salvation. She said nothing to him, but 
every day at that hour she told the Lord about her husband. 
At the end of twelve months there was no change in him. 
But she did not give up. Six months more went past. 
Her faith began to waver, and she said, " Will I have to 
give him up at last? Perhaps when I am dead He will 
answer my prayers." When she had got to that point, it 
seemed just as if God had got her where he wanted her. 
The man came to dinner one day. His wife was in the 
dining-room waiting for him, but he didn't come in. She 
waited some time, and finally looked for him all through 
the house. At last she thought of going into the little room 
where she had prayed so often. There he was, praying at 
the same bed with agony, where she had prayed for so many 
months, asking forgiveness for his sins. And this is a 
lesson to you wives who have infidel husbands. The Lord 
saw that woman's faith and answered her prayers. 

OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 

But I have another anecdote to tell. It was Ralph 
Wallace who told me of this one. A certain gentleman was 
a member of the Presbyterian Church. His little boy was 
sick. When he went home his wife was weeping, and she 
said, " Our boy is dying ; he has had a change for the worse. 
I wish you would go in and see him." The father went into 
the room and placed his hand upon the brow of his dying 
boy, and could feel that the cold, damp sweat was gather- 
ing there; that the cold, icy hand of death was feeling for 
the chords of life. " Do you know, my boy, that you are 



His Anecdotes. 655 

dying?" asked the father. "Am I? Is this death? Do 
you really think I am dying?" " Yes, my son, your end 
on earth is near." "And will I be with Jesus to-night 
father?" " Yes, you will be with the Saviour." "Father, 
don't you weep, for when I get there I will go right straight 
to Jesus and tell Him that you have been trying all my life 
to lead me to Him." God has given me two little children, 
and ever since I can remember I have directed them to 
Christ, and I would rather they carried this message to 
Jesus — that I had tried all my life to lead them to Him — 
than have all the crowns of the earth ; and I would rather 
lead them to Jesus than give them the wealth of the world. 
If you have got a child go and point the way. I challenge 
any man to speak of heaven without speaking of children. 
" For of such is the kingdom of heaven." 

THE JUDGE. 

A number of years ago as I was coming out of a daily 
prayer meeting in one of our Western cities, a lady came 
up to me and said : " I want to have you see my husband 
and ask him to come to Christ." She says, " I want to have 
you go and see him." She told me his name, and it was a 
man I had heard of before. " Why," said I, " I can't go 
and see your husband. He is a booked infidel. I can't 
argue with him. He is a good deal older than I am, and 
it would be out of place. Then I am not much for infidel 
argument." " Well, Mr. Moody," she says, " that ain't 
what he wants. He's got enough of that. Just ask him to 
come to the Saviour." She urged me so hard and so strong, 
that I consented to go. I went to the office where the Judge 
was doing business, and told him what I had come for. He 
laughed at me. " You are very foolish," he said, and be- 
gan to argue with me. I said, " I don't think it will be 
profitable for me to hold an argument with you. I have 



656 Dwight L. Moody: 

just one favor I want to ask of you, and that is, that when 
you are converted you will let me know." " Yes," said he, 
" I will do that. When I am converted I will let you 
know " — with a good deal of sarcasm. 

I went off, and requests for prayer were sent here and 
to Fulton street, New York, and I thought the prayers 
there and of that wife would be answered if mine were not. 
A year and a half after, I was in that city, and a servant 
came to the door and said : " There is a man in the front 
parlor who wishes to see you." I found the Judge there; 
he said : " I promised I would let you know when I was 
converted." " Well," said I, " tell me all about it." I had 
heard it from other lips, but I wanted to hear it from his 
own. He said his wife had gone out to a meeting one night 
and he was home alone, and while he was sitting there by 
the fire he thought : " Supposing my wife is right, and my 
children are right; suppose there is a heaven and a hell, 
and I shall be separated from them." His first thought was, 
" I don't believe a word of it." The second thought came, 
" You believe in the God that created you, and that the 
God that created you is able to teach you. You believe 
that God can give you life." " Yes, the God that created 
me can give me life. I was too proud to get down on my 
knees by the fire, and I said, ' O, God, teach me.' And 
as I prayed, I don't understand it, but it began to get very 
dark and my heart got very heavy. I was afraid to tell my 
wife, and I pretended to be asleep. She knelt down beside 
that bed, and I knew she was praying for me. I kept cry- 
ing, ' O, God, teach me.' I had to change my prayer, ' O, 
God, save me ; O, God, take away this burden.' But it grew 
darker and darker, and the load grew heavier and heavier. 
All the way to my office I kept crying, ' O, God, take away 
this load of guilt; I gave my clerks a holiday, and just 
closed my office and locked the door. I fell down on my 



His Anecdotes. 657 

face ; I cried in agony to my Lord, ' O, Lord, for Christ's 
sake take away this guilt/ I don't know how it was, but 
it began to grow very light. I said, I wonder if this isn't 
what they call conversion. I think I will go and ask the 
minister if I am not converted. I met my wife at the door 
and said, ' My dear, I've been converted.' She looked in 
amazement. ' O, it's a fact; I've been converted!' We 
went into that drawing-room and knelt down by the sofa 
and prayed to God to bless us." The old Judge said to me, 
the tears trickling down his cheeks, " Mr. Moody, I've 
enjoyed life more in the last three months than in all the 
years of my life put together." If there is an infidel here — 
if there is a skeptical one here, ask God to give you wisdom 
to come now. Let us reason together, and if you become 
acquainted with God the day will not go before you receive 
light from Him. 

RESCUED. 

I met a man in New York who was an earnest worker, 
and I asked him to tell me his experience. He said he had 
been a drunkard for over twenty years. His parents had 
forsaken him, and his wife had cast him off and married 
some one else. He went into a lawyer's office in Pough- 
keepsie, mad with drink. This lawyer proved a good Sa- 
maritan, and reasoned with him, and told him he could be 
saved. The man scouted the idea. He said : " I must be 
pretty low when my father and mother, my wife and kindred, 
have cast me off, and there is no hope for me here or here- 
after." But this good Samaritan showed him how it was 
possible to secure salvation, got him on his feet, got him on 
his beast, like the good Samaritan of old, and guided his 
face toward Zion. And this man said to me : " I have not 
'drank a glass of liquor since." He is now leader of a young 
men's meeting in New York. I asked him to come last 



658 Dwight L. Moody: 

Saturday night to Northfield, my native town, where there 
are a good many drunkards, thinking he might encourage 
them to seek salvation. He came and brought a youn^ 
man with him. They held a meeting, and it seemed as if 
the power of God rested upon that meeting when these two 
men went on telling what God had done for them — how He 
had destroyed the works of the devil in their hearts, and 
brought peace and unalloyed happiness to their souls. 
These grog shops here are the works of the devil — they are 
ruining men's souls every hour. Let us fight against them, 
and let our prayers go up in our battles. It may seem 
a very difficult thing for us, but it is a very easy thing for 
God to convert rumsellers. 

A DYING INFIDEL'S LETTER. 

I want to read to you a letter which I received some 
time ago. I read this to you because I am getting letters 
from infidels who say that not an infidel has repented 
during our meetings. Only about ten days ago I got a 
letter from an infidel, who accused me of being a liar. He 
said there had not been an infidel converted during our 
meetings. My friends, go up to the young converts' meet- 
ing any Monday night, and you will see there ten or twelve 
who have accepted Christ. Why, nearly every night we 
meet with a poor infidel who accepts Christ. But let me 
read this letter. We get many letters every day for prayer, 
and, my friends, you don't know the stories that lie behind 
those letters. The letter I am about to read was not re- 
ceived here, but while we were in Philadelphia. AVhen I 
received it I put it away, intending to use it at a future day : 

Dear Sir : Allow me the privilege of addressing you with 
a few words. The cause of writing is indeed a serious one. 
I am the son of an aristocratic family of Germany — was 
expensively educated, and at college at Leipsic was ruined 



His Anecdotes. 659 

by drinking, etc. ; was expelled for gambling and dishonesty. 
My parents were greatly grieved at my conduct, and I did 
not uare return home, but sailed for America. I went to 
St. Louis and remained there for want of money to get 
away. I finally obtained a situation as bookkeeper in a 
dry-goods house; heard from home and the death of my 
parents. This made me more sinful than ever before. I 
heard one of your sermons, which made a deep impression 
on me. I was taken sick, and the words of your text came to 
me and touched me. I have tried to find peace of God, but 
have not succeeded. My friends, by reasoning with me that 
there was no God, endeavored to comfort me. The thought 
of my sinfulness and approaching the grave, my blasphemy, 
my bad example, caused me to mourn and weep. I think 
God is too just to forgive me my sins. My life is drawing 
to a close. I have not yet received God's favor. Will you 
not remember me in your prayers, and beseech God to save 
my soul from eternal destruction? Excuse me for writing 
this, but it will be the last I shall write this side of the grave. 

BARRIERS REMOVED. 

I was speaking to a young lady in the inquiry-room some 
time ago, and she was in great distress of mind. She 
seemed really anxious to be saved, and I could not find 
out what was the trouble between God and her. I saw there 
was something that was keeping her back. I quoted promise 
after promise, but she didn't seem to take hold of any of 
them. Then we got down on our knees, but still there 
was no light. Finally I said : " Is there any one against 
whom you have bitter feelings ? " " Yes ; there's a young 
lady on the other side of the room, talking to your wife, 
whom I can't forgive." "Ah, I've got it now; that's why 
the blessing won't come to you." " Do you mean to tell 



660 Dwight L. Moody: 

me," said the young lady, looking up in my face, " that I 
can't be saved until I forgive her? " "No you can't! and, 
if there are any others whom you hate, you must forgive 
them also." She paused a moment, and then she said: 
" I will go." It seems that my wife and the other young 
lady had been going over the same ground, and just at that 
time the other young lady had resolved to come to ask this 
one's forgiveness. So they met in the middle of the room, 
both saying at once : " Will you forgive me ? " Oh, what 
a meeting it was ! They knelt together, and joy beamed 
on their souls, and their difficulties vanished. In a little while 
they went out of the room with their arms around each 
other, and their faces lit up with a heavenly glow. 

ENLISTED AGAIN. 

I remember being in the camp and a man came to me 
and said, " Mr. Moody, when the Mexican war began I 
wanted to enlist. My mother, seeing I was resolved, said 
if I became a Christian I might go. She pleaded and prayed 
that I might become a Christian, but I wouldn't. I said 
when the war was over I would become a Christian, but 
not till then. All her pleading was in vain, and at last, 
when I was going away, she took out a watch and said : 
My son, your father left this to me when he died. Take it, 
and I want you to remember that every day at 12 o'clock 
your mother will be praying for you. Then she gave me 
her Bible, and marked out passages, and put a few different 
references in the fly-leaf. I took the watch and the Bible 
just because my mother gave them. I never intended to 
read the Bible. I went off to Mexico, and one day while 
on a long, weary march, I took out my watch, and it was 
12 o'clock. I had been gone four months, but I remem- 
bered that my mother at that hour was praying for me. 



His Anecdotes. 66i 

Something prompted me to ask the officer to relieve me 
for a little while, and I stepped behind a tree away out on 
those plains of Mexico, and cried to the God of my mother 
to save me." My friends, God saved him, and he went 
through the Mexican war, " and now," he said, " I have 
enlisted again to see if I can do any good for my Master's 
cause." 

HER OWN BOY. 

r There was a boy a great many years ago stolen in Lon- 
don, the same as Charley Ross was stolen here. Long 
months and years passed away, and the mother had prayed 
and prayed, as that mother of Charley Ross had prayed, I 
suppose, and all her efforts had failed and they had given 
up all hope; but the mother did not quite give up her 
hope. One day a little boy was sent up into the neighbor- 
ing house to sweep the chimney, and by some mistake he 
got down again through the wrong chimney. When he 
came down, he came in by the sitting-room chimney. His 
memory began at once to travel back through the years that 
had passed. He thought that things looked strangely famil- 
iar. The scenes of the early days of youth were dawning 
upon him ; and as he stood there surveying the place, his 
mother came into the room. He stood there covered with 
rags and soot. Did she wait until she sent him to be washed 
before she rushed and took him in her arms? No, indeed, 
it was her own boy. She took him to her arms all black 
and smoked, and hugged him to her bosom, and shed tears 
of joy upon his head. 

" MY MOTHER'S GOD." 

I remember going into a young converts' meeting in 
Philadelphia, where I heard a story that thrilled my soul. 
A young man said he had been a great drunkard. He had 



662 Dwight L. Moody: 

lost one situation after another, till finally he came to the 
very dregs. He left Philadelphia, and went first to Wash- 
ington, and then to Baltimore. One night he came back 
to Philadelphia. He had lost his key and could not get 
into his home. He was afraid to go into the house while 
the people were stirring, so he staid outside watching till 
all had retired. He knew that after that there would be at 
least one who would hear him and come to the door. He 
went to the door; he knocked; when he heard the foot- 
steps of his mother. " O, Edward," said she, " I am so 
glad to see you." She did not reprove him ; did not rebuke 
him. He went up stairs and did not come down for two 
days. When he came to, the servants were walking about 
the house very softly — everything was quiet. They told 
him that his mother was at the point of death. His brother 
was a physician, and he went to him and asked him if it 
was so. " Yes, Ned," said he, " mother can't live." He im- 
mediately went up stairs, and asked his mother's forgive- 
ness, and prayed to his mother's God to have mercy upon 
him. "And God," said he, " my mother's God, heard my 
prayers," and the tears trickled down his face and he said : 
" God has kept me straight these four years in the face of 
all trials." O, sinner, ask for His grace and might ; do not 
turn Him away. 

REDEEMED. 

A friend in Ireland once met a little Irish boy who had 
caught a sparrow. The poor little bird was trembling in 
his hand, and seemed very anxious to escape. The gentle- 
man begged the boy to let it go, as the bird could not do him 
any good ; but the boy said he would not, for he had chased 
it three hours before he could catch it. He tried to reason 
it out with the boy, but in vain. At last he offered to buy 
the bird; the boy agreed to the price, and it was paid. 



His Anecdotes. 663 

Then the gentleman took the poor little thing and held it 
out on his hand. The boy had been holding it very fast, 
for the boy was stronger than the bird, just as Satan is 
stronger than we, and there it sat for a time, scarcely able 
to realize the fact that it had got liberty ; but in a little 
while it flew away, chirping, as if to say to the gentleman, 
" Thank you ! thank you ! you have redeemed me." That 
is what redemption is — buying back and setting free. So 
Christ came back to break the fetters of sin, to open the 
prison doors and set the sinner free. This is the good news, 
the gospel of Christ — " Ye are not redeemed with corrupti- 
ble things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood 
of Christ." 

THE LITTLE WANDERER. 

One day as a young lady was walking up the street, she 
saw a little boy running out of a shoemaker's shop, and 
behind him was the old shoemaker chasing him with a 
wooden last in his hand. He had not run far until the last 
was thrown at him, and he was struck in the back. The 
boy stopped and began to cry. The Spirit of the Lord 
touched that young lady's heart, and she went to where he 
was. She stepped up to him, and asked if he was hurt. He 
told her it was none of her business. She went to work 
then to win that boy's confidence. She asked him if he 
went to school. He said, " No." " Well, why don't you go 
to school?" " Don't want to." She asked him if he would 
not like to go to Sunday school. " If you will come," she 
said, " I will tell you beautiful stories and read nice books." 
She coaxed and pleaded with him, and at last said that if 
he would consent to go, she would meet him on the corner 
of a street which they should agree upon. He at last con- 
sented, and the next Sunday, true to his promise, he waited 
for her at the place designated. She took him by the hand 

4 



664 Dwight L. Moody: 

and lea mm into the Sabbath-school. " Can you give me 
a place to teach this little boy?" she asked of the super- 
intendent. 

He looked at the boy, but they didn't have any such look- 
ing little ones in the school. A place was found, however, 
and she sat down in the corner and tried to win that soul 
for Christ. Many would look upon that with contempt, 
but she had got something to do for the Master. The little 
boy had never heard anybody sing so sweetly before. When 
he went home he was asked where he had been. " Been 
among the angels," he told his mother. He said he had 
been to the Protestant Sabbath-school, but his father and 
mother told him he must not go there any more or he would 
get a flogging. The next Sunday he went, and when he 
came home he got the promised flogging. He went the 
second time and got a flogging, and also a third time with 
the same result. At last he said to his father, " I wish you 
would flog me before I go, and then I won't have to think 
of it when I am there." The father said, " If you go to that 
Sabbath-school again I will kill you." It was the father's 
custom to send his son out on the street to sell articles 
to the passers-by, and he told the boy that he might have 
the profits of what he sold on Saturday. The little fellow 
hastened to the young lady's house and said to her, "Father 
said that he would give me every Saturday to myself, and 
if you will just teach me, then I will come to your house 
every Saturday afternoon." I wonder how many young 
ladies there are that would give up their Saturady after- 
noons just to lead one boy into the kingdom of God. Every 
Saturday afternoon that little boy was there at her house, 
and she tried to tell him the way to Christ. She labored 
with him, and at last the light of God's spirit broke upon 
his heart. 

One day while he was selling his wares at the railroad 



His Anecdotes. 665 

station, a train of cars approached unnoticed and passed 
over both his legs. A physician was summoned, and the 
first thing after he arrived, the little sufferer looked up into 
his face and said, "Doctor, will I live to get home?" "No," 
said the doctor, " you are dying." " Will you tell my 
mother and father that I died a Christian ? " They bore 
home the boy's corpse and with it the last message that 
he died a Christian. Oh, what a noble work was that young 
lady's in saving that little wanderer ! How precious the 
remembrance to her ! When she goes to heaven she will 
not be a stranger there. He will take her by the hand 
and lead her to the throne of Christ. She did the work 
cheerfully. Oh, may God teach us what our work is that we 
may do it for his glory. 

ENTHUSIASM. 

When I was going to Europe in 1867, my friend Mr. 
Stuart, of Philadelphia, said, " Be sure to be at the General 
Assembly in Edinburgh, in June. I was there last year," 
said he, " and it did me a world of good." He said that 
a returned missionary from India was invited to speak to 
the General Assembly, on the wants of India. This old 
missionary, after a brief address, told the pastors who were 
present, to go home and stir up their churches and send 
young men to India to preach the gospel. He spoke with 
such earnestness, that after a while he fainted, and they car- 
ried him from the hall. When he recovered he asked where 
he was, and they told him the circumstances under which 
he had been brought there. : ' Yes," he said, " I was mak- 
ing a plea for India, and I didn't quite finish my speech, 
did I ? " After being told that he did not, he said, " Take 
me back and let me finish it." But they said, " No, you 
will die in the attempt." " Well," said he, " I will die if I 
don't/' and the old man asked again that they would allow 

44 



666 Dwight L. Moody: 

him to finish his plea. When he was taken back the whole 
congregation stood as one man, and as they brought him 
on the platform, with atrembling voice he said : " Fathers 
and mothers of Scotland, is it true that you will not let 
your sons go to India? I spent twenty-five years of my 
life there. I lost my health and I have come back with 
sickness and shattered health. If it is true that we have 
no strong grandsons to go to India, I will pack up what I 
have and be off to-morrow, and I will let those heathens 
know that if I cannot live for them I will die for them." 
The world will say that old man was enthusiastic. Well, 
that is just what we want. 

ONE WOMAN. 

One place we were in, in England, I recollect a Quakeress 
came in. The meeting was held in a Methodist church, 
and the Spirit of God was there — souls were being saved: 
multitudes were pressing into the kingdom. She had a 
brother who was a drinker and a nephew who had just come 
to the city, and he was in a critical state, too. They came 
to the meeting with her. Everything appeared strange 
to her, and when she went home she did not know really 
what to say. She and her brother and nephew went up 
stairs, and coming down she thought, it may be that the 
destiny of their souls depends on what I say now. When 
she entered the parlor she found them laughing and joking 
about the meeting. She put on a serious face and said, " I 
don't think we should laugh at it. Suppose Mr. Moody 
had come to you and asked you if were converted, what 
would you have told him? " " I would have told him to 
mind his own business," replied one of them. " I think 
it is a very important question, and a question a Christian 
ought to put to any one; Mr. Moody, as a Christian, has 



His Anecdotes. 667 

a right to ask any one." She talked with them, and when 
that brother went to bed, he began thinking and thinking. 
He had tickets for the theatre next night, but when next 
night came he said he would go to the meeting with his 
sister, and, to make a long story short, he came and was 
converted. He came to me — he was a mechanic — and 
asked me to talk to the laborers and have them come to 
the meetings. He had got such a blessing himself that he 
wanted them to share it. 

That man brought me a list of the names of the me- 
chanics about half as long as this room, and we got up a 
meeting in the theatre, and we had that theatre packed. 
That was the first meeting of working men I ever had, and 
the work of grace broke out among them. This was but 
the result of the woman taking her stand. She went into 
the inquiry-room and became an earnest worker. I get 
letters from her frequently now, and I do not believe there 
is a happier woman in all England. If she had taken another 
course she might have been the means of ruining these 
young men. There is one thing that Christians ought to 
ask themselves. Ask your heart, " Is this the work of the 
devil ? " That is the plain question. If it's the work of 
the devil turn your back against it. I would if I thought it 
was. If it is the work of God, be careful what you do. My 
friends, it is a terrible thing to fight against God. If it 
is the Lord's wish, come out and take your stand, and let 
there be one united column of people coming up to heaven. 
Let every man, woman, and child be not afraid to confess 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 

THE LITTLE NORWEGIAN. 

I remember while in Boston I attended one of the daily 
prayer meetings. The meetings we had been holding had 



668 Dwight L. Moody: 

been almost always addressed by young men. Well, in 
that meeting a little tow-headed Norwegian boy stood up. 
He could hardly speak a word of English plain, but he got 
up and came to the front. He trembled all over and the 
tears were all trickling down his cheeks, but he spoke out 
as well as he could and said: " If I tell the world about 
Jesus, then will He tell the Father about me ? " He then 
took his seat; that was all he said, but I tell you that in 
those few words he said more than all of them, old and 
young together. Those few words went straight down into 
the heart of every one present. " If I tell the world " — 
yes, that's what it means to confess Christ. 

CONFESSION. 

Here is a whole chapter in John (ix) of forty-one verses, 
just to tell how the Lord blessed that blind beggar. It was 
put in this book, I think, just to bring out the confession 
of that man. " The neighbors, therefore, and they which 
before had seen him which was blind, said, Is not this he 
that sat and begged ? Some said, This is he ; others said, 
He is like him ; but he said, I am he." If it had been our 
case I think we would have kept still ; we would have said, 
" There is a storm brewing among the Pharisees, and they 
have said, If any man acknowledges Christ we will put him 
out of the Synagogue. Now I don't want to be put out of 
the Synagogue." I am afraid we would have said that ; 
that is the way with a good many of the young converts. 
What did the young convert here? He said, " I am he." 
And bear in mind he only told what he knew; he knew 
the Man had given him his eyes. " Some said, He is like 
him; but he said, I am he." So, young converts, open your 
lips and tell what Christ has done for you. If you can't 
do more than that, open your lips and do that, " Therefore, 



His Anecdotes. 669 

said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? He 
answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, 
and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool 
of Siloam, and wash ; and I went and washed, and I re- 
ceived sight." He said, " He anointed my eyes with clay, 
and I went to the pool and washed, and whereas I had no 
eyes, I have now got two good eyes." Some skeptic might 
ask, "What is the philosophy of it?" But he couldn't 
tell that. " Then said they unto him, Where is he ? He 
said, I know not. They brought to the Pharisees him that 
aforetime was blind. And it was the Sabbath day when 
Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then again the 
Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. 
He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes and I 
washed and do see." He wasn't afraid to tell his experience 
twice ; he had just told it once. " Therefore, said some 
of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keep- 
eth not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that 
is a sinner do such miracles ? and there was a division among 
them." Now I am afraid if it had been us, we would have 
kept still and said, " There is a storm brewing." " They 
say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of Him, 
that He hath opened thine eyes ? He said, He is a prophet." 
Now you see he has got to talking of the Master, and that 
is a grand good thing. 

I WON'T. 

The hardest thing, I will admit, ever a man had to do is 
to become a Christian, and yet it is the easiest. This seems 
to many to be a paradox, but I will repeat it, it is the 
most difficult thing to become a Christian, and yet it is the 
easiest. I have a little nephew in this city. When he was 
about three or four years of age, he threw that Bible on 



670 Dwight L. Moody: 

the floor. I think a good deal of that Bible, and I don't 
like to see this. His mother said to him, " Go pick up 
uncle's Bible from the floor." " I won't," he replied. " Go 
and pick up that Bible directly." " I won't." " What did 
you say? " asked his mother. She thought he didn't under- 
stand. But he understood well enough, and had made up 
his mind that he wouldn't. She told the boy she would 
have to punish him if he didn't, and then he said he couldn't, 
and by and by he said he didn't want to. And that is the 
way with the people in coming to Christ. At first they say 
they won't, then they can't, and then they don't want to. 
The mother insisted upon the boy picking up the Bible, 
and he got down and put his arms around it and pretended 
he couldn't lift it. He was a great, healthy boy, and he 
could have picked it up easily enough. I was very anxious 
to see the fight carried on because she was a young mother, 
and if she didn't break that boy's will he was going to break 
her heart by and by. So she told him again if he didn't 
pick it up she would punish him, and the child just picked 
it up. It was very easy to do it when he made up his 
mind. So it is perfectly easy for men to accept the gospel. 
The trouble is they don't want to give up their will. If 
you want to be saved you must just accept that gospel — 
that Christ is your Saviour, that he is your Redeemer, and 
that he has rescued you from the curse of the law. Just say 
" Lord Jesus Christ, I trust you from this hour to save me," 
and the moment you take that stand he will put his loving 
arms around you and wrap about you the robe of righteous- 
ness. 

INTO THE LIFE-BOAT. 

While I was in New York, an Irishman stood up in a 
young convert's meeting and told how he had been saved. 
He said in his broken Irish brogue that I used an illus- 



His Anecdotes. 671 

tration, and that illustration saved him. And I declare 
that that is the only man I ever knew who was converted 
without being spoken to. He said I used an illustration of 
a wrecked vessel, and said that all would perish unless 
some assistance came. Presently a life-boat came alongside 
and the captain shouted, " Leap into the life-boat — leap for 
your lives, or you will perish," and when I came to the point 
I said, " Leap into the life-boat ; Christ is your life-boat of 
salvation," and he leaped and was saved. 

THE VERY LAST EXCUSE. 

" I can't feel," says one. That is the very last excuse. 
When a man comes with that excuse he is getting pretty 
near the Lord. We are having a body of men in England 
giving a new translation of the Scriptures. I think we 
should get them to put in a passage relating to feeling. 
With some people it is feel, feel, feel all the time. What 
kind of feeling have you got? Have you got a desire to 
be saved, have you got a desire to be present at the marriage 
supper? Suppose a gentleman asked me to dinner, I say, 
"I will see how I feel." "Sick?" he might ask. "No; 
it depends on how I feel." That is not the question — it 
is whether I will accept the invitation or not. The question 
with us is, will we accept salvation — will you believe? There 
is not a word about feelings in the Scriptures. When you 
come to your end, and you know that in a few days you will 
be in the presence of the Judge of all the earth, you will 
remember this excuse about feelings. You will be saying, 
" I went up to the Tabernacle, I remember, and I felt very 
good, and before the meeting was over I felt very bad, and 
I didn't feel I had the right kind of feeling to accept the 
invitation." Satan will then say, " I made you feel so." 
Suppose you build your hopes and fix yourselves upon the 



672 Dwight L. Moody: 

Rock of Ages, the devil cannot come to you. Stand upon 
the Word of God and the waves of unbelief cannot touch 
you, the waves of persecution cannot assail you; the devil 
and all the fiends of hell cannot approach you if you only 
build your hopes upon God's Word. Say, I will trust Him, 
though He slay me — I will take God at His word. 

PARDONED. 

I want to tell you a scene that occurred some time ago. 
Our Commissioner went to the Governor of the State and 
asked him if he wouldn't pardon out five men at the end 
of six months who stood highest on the list for good be- 
havior. The Governor consented, and the record was to be 
kept secret; the men were not to know anything about it. 
The six months rolled away and the prisoners were brought 
up — 1,100 of them — and the President of the commission 
came up and said : " I hold in my hand pardons for five 
men." I never witnessed anything like it. Every man 
held his breath, and you could almost hear the throbbing 
of every man's heart. " Pardon for five men," and the Com- 
missioner went on to tell the men how they had got these 
pardons — how the Governor had given them, but the Chap- 
lain said the surprise was so great that he told the Com- 
missioner to read the names first and tell the reason after- 
ward. The first name was called — " Reuben Johnson " — 
and he held out the pardon, but not a man moved. He 
looked all around, expecting to see a man spring to his feet 
at once; but no one moved. The Commissioner turned to 
the officer of the prison and inquired : "Are all the convicts 
here?" "Yes," was the reply, "Reuben Johnson, come 
forward and get your pardon ; you are no longer a crimi- 
nal." Still no one moved. 

The real Reuben Johnson was looking all the time be- 



His Anecdotes. 673 

hind him, and around him to see where Reuben was. The 
Chaplain saw him standing right in front of the Commis- 
sioner, and beckoned to him ; but he only turned and looked 
around him, thinking that the Chaplain might mean some 
other Reuben. A second time he beckoned to Reuben and 
called to him, and a second time the man looked around. 
At last the Chaplain said to him : " You are the Reuben." 
He had been there for nineteen years, having been placed 
there for life, and he could not conceive it would be for 
him. At last it began to dawn upon him, and he took the 
pardon from the Commissioner's hand, saw his name 
attached to it, and wept like a child. This is the way that 
men make out pardons for men ; but, thank God, we have 
not to come to-night and say we have pardons for only 
five men — for those who have behaved themselves. We 
have assurance of pardon for every man. " Whosoever will, 
let him take the water of life freely." 

HIS FIRST SERMON ON GRACE. 

I remember preaching one night in winter — one of the 
coldest winters we had — the winter after the Chicago fire. 
I had been studying up grace, and it was the first time I had 
spoken of it, and I was just full of it. I started out of the 
house, I remember, and the first man I met I asked him if 
he knew anything about the grace of God, and I tried to 
preach to him. This man thought I was crazy. I ran on 
and met another, and finally got up to the meeting. That 
night I thought I was speaking to a lot of people who felt 
as I did about grace, and when I got through I asked any 
one who would like to hear about grace — who had any 
interest in it, to stay. I expected some would have stayed, 
but what was my mortification to see the whole audience 
rise up and go away. They hadn't any interest in grace ; 



674 Dwight L. Moody: 

they didn't want to learn anything about grace. I put my 
coat and hat on and was going out* of the hall, when I 
saw a poor fellow at the back of the furnace crying. " I 
want to hear about the grace of God." said he. " You're 
the man I want, then," said I. " Yes," the poor fellow said, 
" you said in your sermon that it was free, and I want you 
to tell me something about it." Well, I got to talking to 
him, and he told me a pitiful story. He had drank away 
twenty thousand dollars, his home had been broken up, and 
his wife and children had left him. I spoke to him, and it 
was not long before we were down together praying. That 
night I got him a night's lodging in the Bethel, and next 
day we got him on his feet, and when I went to Europe 
he was one of the most earnest workers we had. He was 
just a partaker of grace — believed that the peace of God 
was sufficient for him, and he took God at his word and he 
was a saved man. 

MOODY PENNILESS IN BOSTON. 

I remember when I was a boy and went to Boston, I 
went to the postoffice two or three times a day to see if 
there was a letter for me. I knew there was not as there 
was but one mail a day. I had not had any employment 
and was very homesick, and so went constantly to the 
postoffice, thinking perhaps when the mail did come in my 
letter had been mislaid. At last, however, I got a letter. It 
was from my youngest sister, the first letter she ever wrote 
to me. I opened it with a light heart, thinking there was 
some good news from home, but the burden of the whole 
letter was that she had heard there were pickpockets in 
Boston, and warned me to take care of them. I thought I 
had better get some money in hand first, and then I might 
take care of pickpockets, And so you must take care to 



His Anecdotes. 675 

remember salvation is a gift. You don't work for salvation, 
but work day and night after you have got it. Get it first 
before you do anything, but don't try to get it yourself. 
Look at what Paul says in Ephesians : " For by grace are 
ye saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the 
gift of God " — it is the gift of God — " Not of works, lest 
any man should boast." There is one thing we know : 
We have all got to get into heaven the same way. We can- 
not work our way there ; we have to take our salvation 
from God. 

HE TOOK THE OTHER WAY. 

I remember hearing of a man who dreamt that he built 
a ladder from earth to heaven, and when he did a good deed 
up went his ladder a few feet. When he did a very good 
deed his ladder went higher, and when he gave away large 
sums of money to the poor up it went further still. By and 
by it went out of sight, and years rolled on, and it went up he 
thought past the clouds, clear into heaven. When he died he 
thought he would step off his ladder into heaven, but he 
heard a voice roll out from paradise, " He that climbeth 
up another way, the same is a thief and a robber," and 
down he came, ladder and all, and he awoke. He said if 
he wanted to get salvation he must get it another way than 
by good deeds, and he took the other way. 



HIS SAYINGS. 



HIS SAYINGS. 



Take your stand on the Rock of Ages. Let death, let the 
judgment come: the victory is Christ's and yours through 
Him. 

The only man who ever suffered before Christ was that 
servant who had his ear cut off. But most likely in a moment 
afterward he had it on, and very likely it was a better ear 
than ever, because whatever the Lord does He does it well. 
No man ever lost his life with Him. 

A great many people wonder why it was that Christ did 
not come at once to Martha and Mary, whom He loved, 
whenever He heard of their affliction. It was to try them, 
and it is the same with His dealings toward us. If He seems 
not to come to us in our affliction, it is only to test us. 

When the Spirit came to Moses, the plagues came upon 
Egypt, and he had power to destroy men's lives ; when the 
Spirit came upon Elijah, fire came down from heaven ; when 
the Spirit came upon Gideon, no man could stand before 
him ; and when it came upon Joshua, he moved around the 
city of Jericho and the whole city fell into his hands ; but 
when the Spirit came upon the Son of Man, He gave His 
life ; He healed the broken-hearted. 

No matter how low down you are ; no matter what your 
disposition has been; you may be low in your thoughts, 
words, and actions ; you may be selfish ; your heart may be 
overflowing with corruption and wickedness ; yet Jesus will 

[679] 



68o Dwight L. Moody: 

have compassion upon you. He will speak comforting 
words to you ; not treat you coldly or spurn you. as perhaps 
those of earth would, but will speak tender words, and 
words of love and affection and kindness. Just come at 
once. He is a faithful friend — a friend that sticketh closer 
than a brother. 

There cannot be any peace where there is uncertainty. 

There is no knowledge like that of a man who knows he is 
saved, who can look up and see his " title clear to mansions 
in the skies." 

I believe hundreds of Christian people are being deceived 
by Satan now on this point, that they have not got the 
assurance of salvation just because they are not willing to 
take God at His word. 

" But," a man said to me, " no one has come back, and we 
don't know what is in the future. It is all dark, and how 
can we be sure?" Thank God! Christ came down from 
heaven, and I would rather have Him, coming as he does 
right from the bosom of the Father, than any one else. We 
can rely on what Christ says, and He says, " He that be- 
lieveth on Me shall not perish, but have everlasting life." 
Not that we are going to have it when we die, but right 
here to-day. 

Now, I find a great many people who want some evidence 
that they have accepted the Son of God. My friends, if you 
want any evidence, take God's word for it. You can't find 
better evidence than that. You know that when the Angel 
Gabriel came down and told Zachariah he should have a son 
he wanted a further token than the angel's word. He asked 
Gabriel for it and he answered, " I am Gabriel, who stands 
in the presence of the Lord." He had never been doubted, 



His Sayings. 68 i 

and he thundered out this to Zachariah. But he wanted 
a further token, and Gabriel said, " You shall have a token : 
you shall be dumb till your son shall be given you." 

There are over two hundred passages in the Old Testa- 
ment which prophesied about Christ, and every one of them 
has come true. 

God didn't give the world two different Bibles ; they are 
one, and must be believed from back to back, from Genesis 
to Revelation, or not at all. 

I haven't found the first man who ever read the Bible 
from back to back carefully who remained an infidel. My 
friends, the Bible of our mothers and fathers is true. 

The Word of God may be darkened to the natural man, 
but the way of Salvation is written so plain, that the little 
child six years old can understand it if she will. 

Set more and more store by the Bible. Then troubles in 
your Christian life will pass away like a morning cloud. 
You will feed and live on the Word of God, and it will be- 
come the joy of your soul. 

There are dark and mysterious things in the Bible now, 
but when you begin to trust Christ your eyes will be opened 
and the Bible will be a new book to you. It will become 
the Book of books to you. 

I notice if a man goes to cut up the Bible and comes to 
you with one truth and says, " I don't believe this, and I 
don't believe that," — I notice when he begins to doubt 
portions of the Word of God he soon doubts it all. 

If you will show me a Bible Christian living on the Word, 
of God, I will show you a joyful man. He is mounting up 

45 



682 Dwight L. Moody: 

all the time. He has got new truths that lift him up over 
every obstacle, and he mounts over difficulties higher and 
higher, like a man I once heard of who had a bag of gas 
fastened on either side, and if he just touched the ground 
with his foot, over a wall or a hedge he would go; and so 
these truths make us so light that we bound over every 
obstacle. 

The best truths are got by digging deep for them. 

When we know our Bible, then it is that God can use us. 

When we find a man meditating on the words of God, 
my friends, that man is full of boldness and is successful. 

When a man is filled with the Word of God you cannot 
keep him still. If a man has. got the Word, he must speak 
or die. 

Let us have one day exclusively to study and read the 
Word of God. If we can't take time during the week, we 
will have Sunday uninterrupted. 

Now, as old Dr. Bonner, of Glasgow, said, " The Lord 
didn't tell Joshua how to use the sword, but He told him 
how he should meditate on the Lord day and night, and 
then he would have good success." 

One thing I have noticed in studying the Word of God, 
and that is, when a man is filled with the Spirit he deals 
largely with the Word of God, whereas the man who is 
filled with his own ideas refers rarely to the Word of God. 
He gets along without it, and you seldom see it mentioned 
in his discourses. 

Now I am no prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but one 
thing I can predict ; that every one of our new converts that 



His Sayings. 683 

goes to studying his Bible, and loves this book above every 
other book, is sure to hold out. The world will have no 
charm for him ; he will get the world under his feet, because 
in this book he will find something better than the world 
can give him. 

What can botanists tell you of the lily of the valley? 
You must study this book for that. What can geologists 
tell you of the Rock of Ages, or mere astronomers about the 
Bright Morning Star? In those pages we find all knowl- 
edge unto salvation; here we read of the ruin of man by 
nature, redemption by the blood, and regeneration by the 
Holy Ghost. These three things run all through and 
through them. 

The most solemn truth in the gospel is that the only 
thing Christ left down here is His blood. 

A man who covers up the cross, though he may be an 
intellectual man, and draw large crowds, will have no life 
there, and his church will be but a gilded sepulcher. 

There is either of two things we must do. One is to send 
back the message to heaven that we don't want the blood 
of Christ to cleanse us of our sin, or else accept it. 

Into every house where the blood was not sprinkled, 
the destroying angel came. But wherever the blood was 
on door-post and lintel, whether they had worked much, 
or whether they had worked none, God passed them over. 

A man who has not realized what the blood has done for 
him has not the token of salvation. It is told of Julian, the 
apostate, that while he was fighting he received an arrow 



684 Dwight L. Moody : 

in his side. He pulled it out, and, taking a handful of blood, 
threw it into the air and cried, " Galilean, Galilean, thou 
hast conquered." 

Look at that Roman soldier as he pushed his spear into 
the very heart of the God-man. What a hellish deed ! But 
what was the next thing that took place? Blood covered 
the spear ! Oh ! thank God, the blood covers sin. There 
was the blood covering that spear — the very point of it. 
The very crowning act of sin brought out the crowning 
act of love ; the crowning act of wickedness was the crown- 
ing act of grace. 

It is said that old Dr. Alexander, of Princeton College, 
when a young student used to start out to preach, always 
gave them a piece of advice. The old man would stand with 
his gray locks and his venerable face and say : " Young 
man, make much of the blood in your ministry." Now, I 
have traveled considerable during the past few years, and 
never met a minister who made much of the blood and 
much of the atonement but God had blessed his ministry, 
and souls were born into the light by it. 

There was never a sermon which you have listened to 
but in it Christ was seeking for you. I contend that a man 
cannot but find in every page of this book that Jesus Christ 
is seeking him through His blessed Word. This is what 
the Bible is for — to seek out the lost. 

No man in the world should be so happy as a man of God. 
It is one continual source of gladness. He can look up and 
say, " God is my Father, Christ is my Saviour, and the 
Church is my mother." 

There is no other way to the Kingdom of God but by 



His Sayings. 685 

the way of the cross, and it will be easier for you to take it 
now than it will be afterward. 

Everything has to be tried by the sinner before he will 
come to Christ. He has to feel that there is nothing that 
can save him but Christ, then he will come. 

Have not some of you heard a sermon in which you were 
offered as a sinner to the Lord Jesus Christ, and your con- 
science was troubled ? You went away, but you came back 
again, and the Spirit of God came upon you again and 
again, and you were troubled. Haven't you passed through 
that experience ? Don't you remember something like that 
happening to you? That was the Son of God seeking for 
your soul. 

The Son of God has come into the world to bless us. 
Look at that Sermon on the Mount. It is filled with the 
word blessed, blessed, blessed. I think it occurs nine times. 
His heart was full of blessings for the people. He had to 
get it out before He gave His sermon. 

A rule I have had for years is to treat the Lord Jesus 
Christ as a personal friend. His is not a creed, a mere 
empty doctrine, but it is He himself we have. The moment 
we have received Christ we should receive Him as a friend. 
When I go away from home I bid my wife and children 
good-by, I bid my friends and acquaintances good-by, but 
I never heard of a poor backslider going down on his knees 
and saying : " I have been near You for ten years ; Your 
service has become tedious and monotonous ; I have come 
to bid You farewell ; bood-by, Lord Jesus Christ." I never 
heard of one doing this. I will tell you how they go away ; 
they just run away. 

It is the greatest pleasure of living to win souls to Christ. 
45 a 



686 Dwight L. Moody: 

I believe in what John Wesley used to say, "All at it, 
and always at it," and that is what the Church wants to-day. 

If we were all of us doing the work that God has got for 
us to do, don't you see how the work of the Lord would 
advance ? 

There is no man living that can do the work that God has 
got for me to do. No one can do it but myself. And if the 
work ain't done we will have to answer for it when we stand 
before God's bar. 

What makes the Dead Sea dead? Because it is all the 
time receiving, never giving out anything. Why is it that 
many Christians are cold? Because they are all the time 
receiving, never giving out anything. 

If Christ comes into our hearts we are not ashamed. 

I wish we had a few more women like the woman of 
Samaria, willing to confess what the Lord Jesus Christ had 
done for their souls. 

Believing and confessing go together; and you cannot 
be saved without you take them both. " With the mouth 
confession is made unto salvation." If you ever see the 
kingdom of heaven you have to take this way. 

Satan puts straws across our path and magnifies it and 
makes us believe it is a mountain, but all the devil's moun- 
tains are mountains of smoke ; when you come up to them 
they are not there. 

I do not know anything that would wake up Chicago 
better than for every man and woman here who loves Him 
to begin to talk about Him to their friends, and just to 



His Sayings. 687 

tell them what He has done for you. You have got a circle 
of friends. Go and tell them of Him. 

I can't help thinking of the old woman who started out 
when the war commenced with a poker in her hand. When 
asked what she was going to do with it she said : " I can't 
do much with it, but I can show what side I'm on." My 
friends, even if you can't do much, show to which side you 
belong. 

I may say with truth that there is only about one in ten 
who professes Christianity who will turn round and glorify 
God with a loud voice. Nine out of ten are still-born Chris- 
tians. You never hear of them. If you press them hard with 
the question whether they are Christians they might say, 
"Well, I hope so." We never see it in their actions ; we never 
see it in their lives. They might belong to the church you go 
to, but you never see them at the prayer-meetings or taking 
any interest in the church affairs. They don't profess it 
among their fellows or in their business, and the result is 
that there are hundreds going on with a half hope, not sure 
whether their religion will stand them or not. 

It is our privilege to know that we are saved. 

We shall draw the world to Christ when we are filled with 
religion. 

He that overcometh shall inherit all things. God has 
no poor children. 

I hold to the doctrine of sudden conversion as I do to 
my life, and I would as quickly give up my life as give up 
this doctrine, unless it can be proved that it is not according 
to the word of God. Now, I will admit that light is one 
thing and birth is another. A soul must be born before it 



688 Dwight L. Moody: 

can see light. A child must be born before it can be taught ; 
it must be born before it can walk ; it must be born before 
it can be educated. 

If you receive Him it will be well; if you reject Him 
and are lost it will be terrible. 

Thanks be to God, there is hope to-day; this very hour 
you can choose Him and serve Him. 

Now just think a moment and answer the question, 
" What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? " 

I believe in my soul that there are more at this day being 
lost for want of decision than for any other thing. 

One of two things you must do ; you must either receive 
Him or reject Him. You receive Him here and he will 
receive you there ; you reject Him here and He will reject 
you there. 

The mightiest man that ever lived could not deliver him- 
self from his sins. If a man could have saved himself, Chr.ist 
would never have come into the world. 

He came to deliver us from our sinful dispositions, and 
create in us pure hearts, and when we have Him with us it 
will not be hard for us. Then the service of Christ will 
be delightful. 

If you are under the power of evil, and you want to get 
under the power of God, cry to Him to bring you over to 
His service; cry to Him to take you into His army. He 
will hear you; He will come to you, and, if need be, He 
will send a legion of angels to help you to fight your way 
up to heaven. God will take you by the right hand and lead 
you through this wilderness, over death, and take you right 



His Sayings. 689 

into His kingdom. That's what the Son of Man came to 
do. He has never deceived us; just say here: " Christ is 
my deliverer." 

There is not an excuse but is a lie. 

God's service a hard one ! How will that sound in the 
judgment? 

It is easy enough to excuse yourself to hell, but you can- 
not excuse yourself to heaven. 

When a man prepares a feast, men rush in, but when 
God prepares one they all begin to make excuses, and don't 
want to go. 

My friends, to accept this invitation is more important 
than anything else in this world. There is nothing in the 
world that is so important as the question of accepting 
the invitation. 

If everybody could understand everything the Bible said 
it wouldn't be God's book ; if Christians, if theologians, had 
studied it for forty, fifty, sixty years, and then only began to 
understand it, how could a man expect to understand it by 
one reading? 

If God were to take men at their word about these ex- 
cuses, and swept every one into his grave who had an 
excuse, there would be a very small congregation in the 
Tabernacle next Sunday ; there would be little business in 
Chicago, and in a few weeks the grass would be growing 
Dn these busy streets. 

God will honor our faith. 



690 Dwight L. Moody: 

There is nothing on this earth that pleases Christ so much 
as faith. 

Faith is the foundation of all society. We have only to 
look around and see this. 

I believe there is no man in the world so constituted 
but he can believe in God's word. He simply tells you to 
believe in Him, and He will save you. 

When I was converted twenty years ago I felt a faith in 
God ; but five years after I had a hundred times more faith, 
and five years ago I had more than ever, because I became 
better acquainted with Him. I have read up the Word, and 
I see that the Lord has done so and so, and then I have 
turned to where He has promised to perform it, and when 
I see this I have reason to believe in Him. 

All you have got to do is to prove that you are a sinner, 
and I will prove that you have got a Saviour. 

Do you believe the Lord will call a poor sinner, and then 
cast him out? No! his word stands forever, "Him that 
cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out." 

If God put Adam out of this earthly Eden on account 
of one sin, do you think He will let us into the paradise 
above with our tens of thousands sins upon us. 

The only charge they could bring against Christ down 
here was, that He was receiving bad men. They are the 
very kind of men He is willing to receive. 

" Lord, you don't really mean that we .shall preach the 
Gospel to those men that murdered you, to those men that 
took your life? " " Yes/' says the Lord, " go and preach 



His Sayings. 691 

the Gospel to those Jerusalem sinners." I can imagine 
Him saying : " Go and hunt up that man that put the cruel 
crown of thorns upon My brow, and preach the Gospel 
to him. Tell him he shall have a crown in My kingdom 
without a thorn in it." 

We must not limit the mighty grace of God. 

Grace means undeserved kindness. It is the gift of God 
to man the moment he sees he is unworthy of God's favor. 

A man does not get grace till he comes down to the 
ground, till he sees he needs grace. When a man stoops to 
the dust and acknowledges that he needs mercy, then it is 
that the Lord will give him grace. 

If you are ready to partake of grace you have not to 
atone for your sins — you have merely to accept of the atone- 
ment. All that you want to do is to cry, " God have mercy 
upon me," and you will receive the blessing. 

" The grace of God hath power to bring salvation to all 
men," and if a man is unsaved it is because he wants to 
work it out ; he wants to receive salvation in some other 
way than God's way ; but we are told that " he that climbeth 
up another way, the same is a thief and a robber." 

When we get full of this grace we want to see every 
one blessed — we want to see all the churches blessed, not 
only all the churches here, but in the whole country. That 
was the trouble with Christ's disciples. He had hard work- 
to make them understand that His gospel was for every one, 
that it was a stream to flow out to all nations of the earth. 
They wanted to confine it to the Jews, and He had to con- 
vince them that it was for every living being. 

The way to heaven is straight as an arrow. 



692 Dwight L. Moody: 

Heaven is just as much a place as Chicago. It is a des- 
tination. 

What reason have I for doubting God's own word? 

I just as much believe that God sent Christ into the world 
to be the Saviour of the world, as I believe that I exist. 

The drunkard, the open blasphemer, the worst sinners, 
are precisely the ones that need Jesus most. The well don't 
need Him at all. 

There is many a gem in these billiard halls that only 
needs the way pointed out to fill their souls with the love 
of Christ. 

If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you are free. 

There is no sin in the whole catalogue of sins you can 
name but Christ will deliver you from it perfectly. 

We are led on by an unseen power that we have not 
got strength to resist, or else we are led on by the loving 
Son of God. 

The trouble is, people do not know that Christ is a 
Deliverer. They forget that the Son of God came to keep 
them from sin as well as to forgive it. 

You say, " I am afraid I cannot hold out." Well, Christ 
will hold out for you. There is no mountain that He will 
not climb with you if you will ; He will deliver you from 
your besetting sin. 

Satan rules all men that are in his kingdom. Some he 
rules through lust. Some he rules through covetousness. 
Some he rules through appetite. Some he rules by their 
temper, but he rules them. And none will ever seek to be 



His Sayings. 693 

delivered until they get their eyes open and see that they 
have been taken captive. 

When Christ was on the earth there was a woman in 
the temple who was bowed almost to the ground with sin. 
Satan had bound her for eighteen years ; but after all these 
years of bondage Christ delivered her. He spoke one word 
and she was free. She got up and walked home. How 
astonished those at home must have been to see her walk- 
ing in. 

Praise is not only speaking to the Lord on our own 
account, but .it is praising Him for what He has done for 
others. 

If we have a praise church we will have people con- 
verted. I don't care where it is, what part of the world it's 
in, if we have a praise church we'll have successful Christi- 
anity. 

Every good gift that we have had from the cradle up 
has come from God. If a man just stops to think what he 
has to praise God for, he will find there is enough to keep 
him singing praises for a week. 

We have in our churches a great deal of prayer, but I 
think it would be a good thing if we had a praise meeting 
occasionally. If we could only get people to praise God 
for what He has done, it would be a good deal better than 
asking Him continually for something. 

All should work and ask God's guidance. 

The world knows little of the works wrought by prayer. 

Let us pray, and as we pray, let us make room for Jesus 
in our hearts. 



694 Dwight L. Moody: 

Unless the Spirit of God it with us, we cannot expect 
that our prayers will be answered. 

David was the last one we would have chosen to fight 
the giant, but he was chosen of God. 

Every one of our children will be brought into the ark, 
if we pray and work earnestly for them. 

The impression that a praying mother leaves upon her 
children is life-long. Perhaps when you are dead and gone 
your prayer will be answered. 

I would rather go into the kingdom of heaven through 
the poorhouse than go down to hell in a golden chariot. 

I believe there are more young men who come to Boston 
who are lost because they cannot say no, than for any 
other reason. 

It ain't necessary to leave the things of this life when you 
follow Him. It is not necessary to give up your business, 
if it's a legitimate one, in order to accept Christ. But you 
musn't set your heart on the old nets by a good deal. 

A great many people want to bring their faith, their 
works, their good deeds to Him for salvation. Bring your 
sins, and He will bear them away into the wilderness of for- 
getfulness, and you will never see them again. 

Do you believe that He would send those men out to 
preach the gospel to every creature unless he wanted every 
creature to be saved? Do you believe He would tell them 
to preach it to people without giving people the power to 
accept it? Do you believe the God of heaven is mocking 
men by offering them his gospel and not giving them the 



His Sayings. 695 

power to take hold of it? Do you believe He will not give 
men power to accept this salvation as a gift? Man might 
do that, but God never mocks men. And when he says 
" Preach the gospel to every creature," every creature can 
be saved if he will. 

Lift your eyes from off these puny Christians — from 
off these human ministers, and look to Christ. He is the 
Saviour of the world. He came from the throne to this 
earth : He came from the very bosom of the Father. God 
gave Him up freely for us, and all we have to do is to 
accept him as our Saviour. Look at Him at Gethsemane, 
sweating as it were great drops of blood ; look at Him on 
the cross, crucified between two thieves ; hear that piercing 
cry, " Father, Father, forgive them, they know not what 
they do." And as you look into that face, as you look into 
those wounds on His feet or His hands, will you say He 
has not the power to save you? Will you say He has not 
the power to redeem you? 

Sometimes when a man has a marked peculiarity we 
say he got it from his father or his mother. I think Jacob 
took after his mother. She wasn't willing to wait on the 
Lord, but wanted to arrange everything connected with her 
children's future herself, and in this she was like a good 
many parents in these days. 

What is it that protects the crown of Victoria? It is the 
army. The army keeps the crown perfectly safe. I remem- 
ber in London holding meetings in the East End, and as 
we were going along the streets one night, we met some 
soldiers marching. I said : " Where are those soldiers 
going?" "They are going to the Bank of England." It 
was the law of the land that just as soon as the sun went 



696 Dwight L. Moody: 

down, a certain number of soldiers went to the Bank of 
England and stayed there till daybreak. That made the 
bank perfectly safe. There was no chance for thieves to get 
in there. So, if our life is hid in Christ, how are the powers 
of darkness going to get at it? 

We find a good many who are opposed to having the 
laymen preach ; but the word of the Lord is, " Let him that 
heareth say, Come ; " and a layman can hear as well as 
if he had been ordained. 

O, these lying funeral sermons ! How men try to make 
out that a godless life can be followed by a death in the 
Lord, and a free admittance into the kingdom of heaven ! 

O, my friends, it is a very bad place for God's people 
under the juniper-tree. 

\ 

Some people tell us — I heard some one not long ago — 
that if a man was willing to meet God half way God would 
meet him there, and he would be blessed. Suppose that 
this is true, how was this poor wounded, dying man going 
to be saved? Supposing that the good Samaritan had 
rode up on his horse and said : Now come, my good 
friend, jump up here and I will take you to an inn. Come, 
give me your hand, and I will help you." That wouldn't 
have helped him any. 

Now take a good look at this Pharisee, and see who he. 
is like. His prayer has thirty-four words in it, and there 
are nine great capital I's. If he prayed as long as some 
people do, and put in " I's " in proportion, the printer would 
have to go and borrow some capital " I's " if he wanted 
to set it up. 



His Sayings. 697 

There are only three steps down the hill to perdition ; 
they are, first, to neglect; second, to refuse ; third, to despise. 

Some people think that Mephibosheth, like certain low- 
spirited Christians, must have been all the time worrying 
over his lame feet there in the palace of the king, but I 
don't think so. He couldn't help it, and, if David didn't 
mind it, it was all right. So I think that when he dined 
with him in state, with the great lords and ladies all around 
him, he just stuck his club-feet under the table and looked 
ihe king right in the face. That is just the way with the 
Gospel. We are God's enemies, and the children of His 
enemies. We are lame, and blind, and wretched, and 
ragged, and hateful by reason of our sins ; but the covenant 
of grace in Jesus Christ has been made ; and now God sends 
for you, poor sinner, in the name of His Son, to come and 
eat bread at his table, and be a member of his family, and 
dwell in his house forever. Will you come? Will you 
come now? 

Every man ought to make a public confession if his sin 
has been public. Suppose, now, I have done this man a 
wrong, and no one knows it but us two. Then the con- 
fession ought to be between us two alone. I don't believe 
in making confession of such a thing publicly ; it isn't called 
for. Suppose I had a difficulty with my family. It ought 
to be settled with my family. It needn't go forth to the 
world. But suppose I have been a public blasphemer — 
have been seen reeling in the streets of Northfield a drunk- 
ard — it is known by all the people here — I ought to make 
my confession so that the whole town will hear it, and the 
chances are they will receive my testimony. 

Somebody might say, " Why couldn't Christ have saved 
him all that trouble, and have spoken the word, and opened 
46 



698 Dwight L. Moody: 

his eyes on the spot? " Well, he could. He did in another 
place. But, my friends, God never repeats himself. He 
never made two men just alike, or converted two men just 
alike. That is where a great many people blunder, looking 
for God to give them somebody else's experience. 

A good many people are complaining all the time about 
themselves, and crying out : " My leanness ! my leanness ! " 
when they ought rather to say, " My laziness ! my lazi- 
ness ! " 

Men want compassion more than sermons. As I said the 
other night, there have been sermons enough preached to 
convert them. But it is not some fine-written essay, it is 
not some oratorical effort, that is going to save these men ; 
we want to get out of the pulpit and off these high plat- 
forms, and go down among them, and show them we love 
them. 

Many a man gives his money patronizingly, and thinks he 
is doing something for God; but God doesn't know any- 
thing about such gifts ; he never writes down any such 
credits in the book of life. 

If Lot had not been so selfish he would have given his 
old uncle the first choice instead of taking it himself, but 
he lifted up his eyes and saw the plain of Jordan : it was 
well-walered and fruitful; so he says, "I will take that." 
He chose the best for himself, you see, and then pitched 
his tent toward Sodom. He might have been a pretty 
good man up to this time, but then he began to backslide. 

The last that this unbelieving world ever saw of Christ 
He was on the cross ; it was only to those who believed on 
Him that He revealed Himself after His resurrection. The 



His Sayings. 699 

last business of His life was to save this poor penitent thief. 
That was a part of the glory of His death. 

The Cross of Christ divides this congregation. There 
are only two sides, those for Christ, and those against Him. 

Jacob is a twin brother to the most of us. You will find 
a hundred Jacobs where you will find one Joseph or one 
Daniel. Joseph was willing to trust everything to God, 
but Jacob wasn't willing to trust Him any further than he 
could see Him. 

The next we hear of Lot he is in trouble. They who go 
to live in Sodom must take the fate of Sodom. 

O, my friends, God was a great deal more tender with 
Abraham than He was with Himself. When His own Son 
was dying upon a cross on that very same mountain he 
didn't send a victim to take His place, but left Him there to 
die, the just for the unjust, that He might redeem us and 
bring us back to God. 

As soon as the king sees Him, he cries out: " O, Me- 
phibosheth, the son of my dear old friend Jonathan ! you 
shall have all that belonged to the house of Saul ; and you 
shall live with me here in my palace and sit at my table." 
What a happy man he must have been to hear that ! Sinner, 
that is just what God says to the soul that comes to Him, 
He gives us a great fortune of love and grace ; and He 
promises that we shall live with Him in His heavenly palace 
forever. * 

Here are the three degrees of this man's progress. First, 
he confesses himself a saved man. Second, he tells what 
Christ has done for him ; and, third, having got done talk- 
ing about himself, he begins to talk about the Master, and 



^oo Dwight L. Moody : 

to preach Him as a prophet. So with you. Get done talking 
about yourselves as quick as you' can, and begin to talk 
about Christ. 

If men are going to get some high office they usually 
have a great many admirers ; but when it is Gethsemane, 
humiliation, and a cross, O how few want to follow Him 
then! 

I once heard of two men who, under the influence of 
liquor, came down one night to where their boat was tied ; 
they wanted to return home, so they got in and began to 
row. They pulled away hard all night, wondering why 
they never got to the other side of the bay. When the grey 
dawn of morning broke, behold, they had never loosed 
the mooring line or raised the anchor ! And that's just the 
way with many who are striving to enter the kingdom of 
heaven. They cannot believe, because they are tied to this 
world. Cut the cord ! cut the cord ! Set yourselves free 
from the clogging weight of earthly things, and you will 
soon go on towards heaven. 

If I saw a man fall into a river do you think I should go 
oft* and get somebody to lay hands on me before I should 
try to pull him out? Would you have the good Samaritan, 
on his way to Jericho, when he finds the man wounded and 
half dead by the way-side, leave the poor fellow there while 
he goes away to get some of his priests to ordain him ? 

It is easy enough to talk about unconverted men confess- 
ing their sins and turning to God ; but if the Church does 
not confess its sins, we cannot expect sinners to do it. 
Some one says, "A sin unconfessed is like a bullet in a 
man's body." We cannot expect to be healthy while there 
is sin in us. 



His Sayings. 701 

I am tired of the word duty; tired of hearing duty, duty, 
duty. Men go to church because it is their duty. They go 
to prayer-meeting because it is their duty. You can never 
reach a man's heart if you talk to him because it is your 
duty. Suppose I told my wife I loved her because it was 
my duty — what would she say? Once every year I go up 
to Massachusetts to visit my aged mother. Suppose, when 
I go next time, I tell her that I knew she was old and that 
she was living on borrowed time ; that I knew she had 
always done a great deal for me, and that I came to see 
her every year because it was my duty. Don't you think 
she would say, " Well then, my son, you needn't take the 
trouble to come again ? " Let us strike for a higher plane. 

God hasn't any use for a man who is all the time looking 
on the dark side. What he wants is a man who isn't afraid. 
" Be of a good courage," says He, " fear nothing ; believe 
that I am willing to use you, and then I will use you." 

■ There is this to be noticed, that as long as Jacob was 
able to wrestle in his own strength he did not prevail ; but 
when his thigh was out of joint, and all he could do was 
to hold on to the Lord, he got the blessing. It is the 
man who is lowest down that God is most willing to lift 
up. The man that has the greatest humility is the one to 
be most exalted. 

Poor Peter ! This man, who is so strong and zealous ; 
wh'o is going to stand by the Lord when everybody else 
forsakes him; this man, who slashes about with his sword 
in order to defend him — is frightened almost out of his 
wits by a servant girl ! 

I want you all to notice that Peter was first called to be 
a disciple and then to be an apostle. He did not leave his 



702 Dwight L. Moody: 

work until he was called the second time. I think it is well 
for us to notice this, because there are a good many young 
converts these days who are looking to the work of the 
ministry, and it is a question whether they have ever been 
called to the ministry. It is one thing to be called to be a 
disciple, and quite another to be called to be an apostle. 

It seems to me there is a great deal too much minister- 
worship and church-worship in the present day. What we 
want is the worship of Jesus only. 

It doesn't take God a great while to save a man when He 
sets about it. But there are a good many people yet who 
can't believe in sudden conversions. 

What we want is sight, no matter how we get it. What 
we want is to come to Christ, no matter how we come. He 
who has the light that Christ gives, so that he knows a 
child of God when he sees him, and can see to work the 
works of Christ — he who has the new life in his own con- 
sciousness, and gives it out to others — he is the man who 
can go on his way through the world rejoicing. 

There are plenty of sleepy Christians and sleepy churches 
to be found in all ages of the world ; and wherever a Church 
goes to sleep something always goes wrong. It is the 
sleepy Church members who go to the theatre and to the 
ball-room, and in that condition they are always an easy 
prey for the devil. 

1 can see poor Mephibosheth looking down at his feet. 
Maybe the toes turned in, or he was club-footed. And he 
says to himself, " I am not fit to go to the King. I am a 
poor cripple. I am not fit to be seen among the tall, hand- 
some servants of the palace in Jerusalem." 



His Sayings. 703 

That's just the way with a convicted sinner. He is all 
the time thinking of his own unworthiness, and saying to 
himself, I am not fit to be saved. 

Look at Elijah at Mount Carmel standing up as bold as 
a lion in the face of all the priests of Baal. He did a great- 
day's work that day. But the very next thing we hear is 
that a woman sent him a message threatening to kill him, 
and the poor man was so scared that he fled for his life into 
the wilderness, and sat down beneath a juniper-tree, and 
began to pray the Lord to take away his life. 

There is always trouble in a family where there are any 
favorites. Petting one child and finding fault with another 
is sure to bring out the old Adam. It looks as if Esau was 
the favorite son of his father, while Jacob was the favorite 
of his mother. By nature Esau was the better man of the 
two ; and if such a mean, contemptible person as Jacob can 
be saved, then there is hope for all of us. 

Look at poor old Pharaoh down there in Egypt, when the 
plague of frogs was on him. What an awful time he must 
have had ! Frogs in the fields, and frogs in the houses ; 
frogs in the bedrooms, and frogs in the kneading troughs. 
When the king went to bed, a frog would jump on to his 
face ; when he cut into a loaf of bread, there was a frog in 
the middle of it. Nothing but frogs everywhere! Frogs, 
frogs, frogs, He stood it as long as he could ; and then he 
sent for Moses, and begged him to take them away. "When 
would you like to have me do it? " says Moses. Now just 
listen to what he says. You would think he would say, 
Now ! this minute ! I have had them long enough ! But he 
says, " To-morrow." Kept the frogs another day, when he 
might have got rid of them at once ! That is just like you, 



704 Dwight L. Moody : 

sinner. You say you want to be saved ; but you are willing 
to keep your hateful, hideous sins until to-morrow, instead 
of being rid of them now. 

Now take a look at the other man. His prayer is short ; 

there isn't a capital " I " in it. " God be merciful to " 

some other sinner? " God be merciful to " that church 

member who has wronged me ? " God be merciful to " 

that hypocrite over there? No, " God be merciful to me, 
a sinner! " 

Whenever a man is walking with God he looks down on 
the giants as if they were grasshoppers, but just as quick 
as he loses sight of the Lord and begins to think of himself, 
he becomes a grasshopper in his own eyes, and the giants 
look terribly large. 

What we want is a gospel of acts, and not a gospel of 
resolves and creeds and dogmas. We have had too many 
of them. We want men who are going to carry out the 
principles that Christ taught, hunting out the fallen and 
degraded, and trying to lift them up in the name of our 
Master. 

A sermon may be keen, it may be very logical, it may be 
full of real intellectual power, it may be as sharp and beau- 
tiful as an icicle, and just as cold, and if it is, it never will 
reach the hearts of the people. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper p 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxi< 

Trpatment flato- <~W Onnz. 



